Youma Dust V20
by Shoddywork
Summary: A mysterious explosion rips through a swanky Tokyo neighborhood, and Detective Urawa is determined to track down those responsible. But with tales of the Senshi swirling around, how much is myth, and how much is fact?
1. Chapter 1

The day started out auspiciously, to say the least. Rain poured down, smothering the streets of Tokyo in it's cold embrace like something out of a film noir. Victorian grey skies hung sullen and low, the tips of the skyscrapers barely caressing them as the clouds passed on towards the vastness of the ocean. With the rain coming down in sheets, pedestrians scurried for cover like rodents, and along the sidewalks you could see people huddled together in groups underneath awnings, mumbling to each other. I guided my black Mazda hatchback to the curb of the abandoned lot and waited for the officers to move their barricade long enough to let me through.

While I waited, I surveyed the damage to some of Tokyo's most prized real estate. The plot had been slated to become a new flock of high-priced condominiums, just another in the slew of top-dollar digs in this prefecture. At least that was the plan, before the whole place got an explosive makeover. In the dead center of the lot, a fairly sizable crater was being investigated by what looked like dozens of demolition experts, black ash and scorched earth contrasting sharply with the wet soil. Fairly sizable was an understatement, considering I probably could have parked my car in there without any trouble. The plot was surrounded by drab, monolithic apartment complexes that bent towards the heavens.

To my surprise, there was little collateral damage, almost unbelievable considering the blast radius. In order to create a crater that large, the explosion would have had to have been big enough to at least cause some windows to break, if not more. Something else wasn't right about this, though. I took a good hard look around, and was almost convinced that I was simply experiencing the sweet hallucinations of sleep deprivation when it hit me. 'What the hell is all that white stuff on the ground?' Last time I looked at a calendar, it was September, a little early for a freakin' winter wonderland.

I eased my car into the lot and parked, pausing for a moment before getting out to pull a dark grey trench-coat on over my crisply pressed black and white suit. Unlike most other detectives in Tokyo, I prefer to keep myself immaculately groomed at all times. My ex-wife called me vain; I told her she should consider herself lucky to find a man who took pride in himself.  Ok, maybe it's a little vain, bordering on metrosexual, but I don't care to delve that deep into it.

I barely have time to shut the door behind me before one of Tokyo's finest is in my face. He looks young, a dead on assumption when he snaps me a wooden salute like some kind of roughneck out of an American war movie. The only time anyone salutes is when they're fresh off the Academy's presses and are eager to please. The kid barks out, "Hello, sir! I'm Officer Kurowa! I was the first on..." He seems caught off guard when I start walking away from him, towards the crater.

"Walk with me, Kurowa. When did you take the call?"

"Um...around 2 A.M. sir..."

I cut him off again. For a second, I worry if I'm coming across like a real dick, but the thought soon fades. "Any witnesses? Any descriptions or suspects? Talk to any of the neighbors yet?" I look up into the windows of the surrounding apartments and catch the gazes of some curious citizens, some of whom withdraw from their windows when they notice that someone's noticed their gaping. "Looks like we might have some nosy ones, those are always the best," I mumbled, mostly to myself.

Kurowa finds the nerve to speak again, "Nothing yet, sir."

Thankfully, he's stopped already, so I don't have to bother interrupting him again. "Well, I need you guys to get on that for now.  Round up some other men, hit the rooms with the view, starting with the building on the north side here, it's got the best view of the lot. Talk to as many people as you can, see if they saw anyone or anything here last night. I'm going to talk to one of the Techs." I notice his rigid posture and almost groaned. Kurowa must have noticed my look of unbridled displeasure, because he dropped out of his stance immediately and hurried across the lot to the other cops on scene, hopefully going to start knocking on doors, more likely to bitch about me. It's too damn early.

The CSI personnel were scurrying too and fro, and I simply tried to get out of their way. Now, I just had to find a familiar face in the crowd. Someone who only found me mildly abrasive, because no matter how much fun it was to annoy the hell out of my fellow officers, such as the young Officer Kurowa, I had enough of social problems as it was. Just my luck, there happens to be an old pal here. Detective Mitsuhiro was crouching with his back to me, digging through layers of dirt and charred ash, looking for God knows what. "Mitsuhiro!"

"Ah, if it isn't Detective Sugara Urawa, pride of the Tokyo Police Department! Hey, I haven't seen you since Kaga's stag party!" Mitsuhiro was chuckling to himself, but I was having a hell of a time trying to remember anything from that night. All that was left was a thick haze and something about sky blue. "Man, I never thought you'd look that good in a dress!" Oh yeah, now I remember.

Mitsuhiro was a buddy of mine from the early days of the academy, the kind of friend you wish you could strangle once in a while. He looked the same as ever, fresh-faced and bright eyed, slightly ratty black hair and a bookish physique. He didn't exactly cut an impressive figure, but he was a Crime Scene Investigator, so that wasn't of any real concern. I forgot to mention that he's a loud-mouth, but that was pretty much apparent once you meet him.

"Yeah, well, if you hadn't locked me out of the apartment, no one else would have known that, either," I grumbled. "Oh yeah, thanks for mentioning that out loud. Way to go, buddy." With more than a little bit of malice, I gave him a hard slap on the back before starting to go over the scene with him, "What have you got for me?"

"Not much yet. We think that an accident is out of the question, since the gas lines running into the lot have been shut off since the previous building was demolished, about 2 months ago." Mitsuhiro stood up and dusted himself off, "We already put a call out to the gas company, and they told us that the line was shut off at the main connection before demolition.  There's strict city code about that sort of thing, so there's no chance of a running line through here.  Plus, the contractor says they weren't storing any explosive materials on-site. If it was an accident, I don't know what the hell could have caused it."

"So, you're saying..."

Mitsuhiro took a step closer, trying to get a little more privacy, "Listen, this wasn't caused by a bomb, or not any kind of bomb I've ever seen. I mean, there's no shrapnel, hell, no trace of any kind of casing period. No residue, nothing. It's like its goddamned magic. We don't have the first clue about what the hell is going on." Hmmm, a mystery explosion. I could only imagine the nuts in this town grabbing hold of a story like that and milking in for all they could.

If I thought less of the guy, I would have just assumed he'd been slacking off and was missing something that was probably sitting right under his nose. Except I did think pretty highly of this guy, which wasn't going to make my job any easier right now, if what he was saying was true. I stroked my goatee and surveyed the crater again. Then it struck me again, and I had to kind of wonder how I managed to forget it in the first place. "Well, I'm assuming all this white shit on the ground doesn't have anything to do with the bomb, but care to fill me in on what the hell it is?"

Mitsuhiro simply shrugged, which isn't making me feel any better. "Beats me, man. We've sent some samples off to the lab, but if you ask me, it had nothing to do with our bomb."

"Yeah, the way it's spread out in random clumps, it was probably spread out after the explosion." Mitsuhiro looked at me noticeably impressed by my observation. Hey, when you're the golden boy..., "If it was the bomb's ignition, what ever didn't evaporate would have spread out exponentially across the blast radius, not in random piles." I took off one of my gloves and knelt down, picking up a small clump of the stuff. It was light, almost like dust, but it had this kind of bizarre iridescent quality to it. I stood up, "Good thing it's raining. This stuff is so light, it would have blown away on a normal day. All this moisture must be keeping it down." I wiped the dust off my hands, "Well, whatever the hell it is, it's all I've got going for me right now. Call me when you get the results back." I scanned the lot silently, before I turned back towards my car, "I'm off to see our contractor."

"Got a hunch?"

I could have put on a show of bravado, but I decided there was no point in impressing Mitsuhiro with Hollywood dramatics. "Nah, I'm going by the book right now. I mean, what else do I have to go on?"

Mitsuhiro smiled. "Textbook isn't your style. I'll talk to you later, princess." I just grumbled to myself as I walked back to my car, Mitsuhiro's laughter floating over my shoulder like some annoying insect.

I lit up a cigarette as I waited in the early morning traffic and ruffled through some papers I had picked up at Headquarters. The contractor I was going to see was Soichiro Tatsuya, 32 years old, fairly clean arrest record, just two drunk in public charges when he was a kid. He's been a successful contractor for almost ten years now, and has built himself a reputation as the kind of guy who can manage to finish up any job on time. He's recently come into the favor of some of Tokyo's high-profile developers, and is apparently really raking in the jack now. He's divorced, a man after my own heart. It says he split with the old battle-ax around 5 years ago and splits custody of their two kids. I had been luckier I guess. I married young at nineteen and we had split two days before my twenty-third birthday. Luckily we didn't have any kids, which I was always happy about. Even now, two years after our divorce, I could still feel the pangs of regret every time I thought about her. But when we were married, there were simply too many problems to fix, so much lost that we could never replace.

I wasn't even able to put the time into a marriage, what with a young promising career and all that bullshit, but at the most I was simply hurting me and Jun. I couldn't imagine dragging kids through that kind of mess. Still, there had been good times back then. I still can't bring myself to blame her for leaving me, when I was never there for her. The rain pattering against my windshield reminded me of the endless hours we'd spend together during dark, gloomy spring days, when the rain was splashing against our apartment window. We'd spend an entire day just lying in our bed, holding each other and drinking the warmth of each others bodies, as if nothing existed beyond the two of us, at that very moment. We were as close as two human beings could possibly be, and more than once I could have sworn I had felt her soul, like she had let down all her barriers and she had given me everything she had and was.

"Argh! Goddamnit!" I pulled my burned fingers away from my cigarette, which had smoked itself down to a nub. 'Man, I really must have drifted off there.' I tapped the nub out in my ashtray and lit up another from a fresh pack. I sucked the smoke in slowly, and while I stared out across the street congested in traffic, choked in a cold haze, I couldn't help but feel my mind drift off again.

"Mr. Tatsuya?" My man was looking pretty ragged when he answered the door, which was understandable under the circumstances. I mean, it isn't everyday that there's a mysterious explosion at your job. He was a tough looking mug, but he also looked like he was carrying a ton of bricks on his back. Everything about him kind of drooped, which automatically made me feel even worse for this guy. When you go through a divorce, you look for something to fill that gap in your life that's suddenly appeared. It can be almost anything, from booze and women to religion, but for a lot of men, its work. Now that his livelihood was under attack, Mr. Tatsuya was obviously having a hard time keeping his chin up. I was going to have to work him up to the hard stuff, "Sorry to disturb you right now, I'm sure you're very busy. I'm Detective Urawa, and I just had a couple of questions to ask you, if you don't mind."

Soichiro nodded numbly and motioned for me to come inside. "Um, feel free to sit anywhere. Would you like some coffee?" His words came out flat and subdued.

"No thank you. We should take a seat though, even though this won't take too long." I followed Soichiro to what I guessed what his living room. He plopped himself into a large, brown recliner, and I sat across from him on a cushy black leather sofa and pulled out a small tape recorder. "You don't mind if I record this do you?" He simply shook his head, looking much like a forlorn and thoroughly dejected dog. I snapped the recorder on and began, "I'm just going to ask some simple questions, and I need you to answer them as completely as you can." I cleared my throat and looked straight into his eyes. Gateways to the soul they're called, and the easiest way to spot a liar. Looking into a person's eyes had become a habit since I started in the police force, one which made a lot of people uncomfortable, for some reason or another. "Now, Mr. Tatsuya, has there been any problems on the site recently?"

"No, nothing. We had only started clearing the lot and leveling a few weeks ago, so we're still pretty early in the job."

"Have you been doing any drilling or digging yet?"

"No, we're not even that far along.  A lot of hold-ups from the developers, you know, some financial problems. We were supposed to start on the concrete base and some of the pylons this week, but, well..."

I nodded and continued, "Have there been any personnel problems?  Anyone acting weird; someone with problems in their personal lives?"

"I've got some of the best men in this city," he started with a grunt. "I've never had a problem with any of my men."

I put up my hands and lowered my voice. I didn't need this guy getting pissed off on me. "I'm sorry, that wasn't meant to be a slur against your workers. I just need to check out every angle." I paused for a second to let him cool down before I started again, "What about the developer, I haven't heard much about him."

He simply shook his head again, "No problems whatsoever. I've worked with Mr. Yamoshita before, and we get along well."

I sat back in the sofa and started to stroke my goatee again, it was time to dig deeper.  "Any strange men hanging around the site.  Or any heavily-tattooed gentlemen having words with Mr. Yamoshita?"

Tatsuya's eyes widened for a moment, "Are you asking me if...?"  He trailed off for a beat, uncomfortable.  "Listen, I don't know anything about that kind of thing, I keep my nose to the grindstone."

"Let's not kid ourselves, everybody knows about the Inagawa-kai and our fair real estate trade," I half-joked, hoping to take the edge off.  "I'm not asking for on-the-record stuff," I noted as I clicked off the recorder as a show of good faith, "I'm asking as a guy who's just trying to do his job too."

"If I was fool enough to name names, you'd never get me to a trial.  Besides, I'm too far down the totem pole to be bothered by the yakuza.  Maybe my boss had some run-ins with them, who in his position hasn't?  But I never caught wind of anything like that."

I figured I had wasted enough time here, and I had better get some real detective work done. Taxpayers are paying my salary, after all, so I might as well give them their money's worth. I grabbed my recorder and stood up, shaking Soichiro's hand before reaching into my coat jacket and fishing out a card. "Thanks for your time, Mr. Tatsuya. If you think of anything, please give me a call."

Soichiro led me to the door, turning around to face me before he shut the door.  "Detective, I've worked for a lot of powerful men in this city.  And like anyone with power, there's something dark and sinister always lying just below the surface.  You want my advice about Yamoshita?  The less you know about powerful people, the better off you are."

When I got back into my car, I called up Mitsuhiro on his cell phone. It was early, but I was hoping someone in his department had been able to find some evidence I could really use. I felt like I was grasping at straws until I had something concrete that I could wrap my mind around, whether this whole mess was just an accident or something more sinister. After a few rings, Mitsuhiro picked up. I could hear the sounds of traffic and machinery in the background, which must mean he was still back at the crime scene. "Mitsuhiro! Got anything back from the lab yet? What the hell are you still doing at the scene?"

"We're still trying to find a useable soil sample, if you can believe that. Everything we've sent to the lab has come back inconclusive." I could hear Mitsuhiro yell something at one of his fellow detectives for a second before he got back to me. "So far, we have no clue to the nature of the explosion, period. Typically finding the cause of an explosion is pretty damned hit or miss, you can either track the source of an explosion easily, or it can elude you for weeks. This one is looking like the latter."

"What about that white powder? Any news on that?" Cross your fingers, because you're going to need it.

"Hell, our lab doesn't even know what the hell that stuff is. They say it bears a resemblance to skin cells, but that's about all they can figure out."

"So you're saying something died there?" Suddenly this case was becoming more problematic by the second.

"Hey, I said 'resembled'. Let's not jump to any wild conclusions here."

"Well, thanks for filling me in. I'm heading back over right now, as a matter of fact. Gonna' go pound down some doors in this neighborhood. I mean, it'll at least give me something to do with the next few hours."

I pulled my car into the lot for the second time that day and stepped out into what was shaping up to be one weird fucking case. The weather was rapidly improving, even the occasional beam of light managed to part the thick sea of clouds and warm things up. A gaggle of news reporters were now gathering outside the site, gawking at the pit in the center of the lot and hurling questions at the two poor street cops responsible for the barricade. Getting out of here was going to be a blast.

I was naturally interested to see if Kurowa had taken my advice and started interviewing the neighbors, so I stopped the first cop I saw and got him on a cruiser radio. He didn't sound too excited to hear my voice, but, once again, I didn't really give a damn. "Kurowa, any luck yet? Which building are you in?"

"The Emerald Apartments, the building on the north side, sir. No luck as of yet." He was getting faster in his response, which was a welcome change.

"Alright, me and," I checked the badge of the poor sap I had stopped, "Officer...Maritoko will take building 204 on the East side. Tell me if you find anything."

As with everything else today, each door was another damned dead-end. Everyone had to be so damn normal, where were all the sad, lonely outcasts that had nothing better to do? It'd certainly make my job a little bit easier. Every story was the same: they were all asleep and didn't hear a damn thing till the explosion. Fat lot of good that does me. This might be the only time I ever thought I'd say this, but we need a damn speed freak living in one of these buildings. Maritoko and I had canvassed the entire spread, and had come up with diddly so far.

I rang the doorbell to Apartment 41e, the last on the third floor, and waited impatiently. I was eager to hit the pavement again, but I kept getting that nagging feeling that I needed to stick with this till it was finished. There was something here that would get the ol' wheels going, I just knew it. An elderly woman answered the door, probably in her early sixties, and looking a little nutty. Not institutional, just the kind of old woman who's used to getting her kicks vicariously. I'm not saying voyeur, but pretty damn close. Hey, when people stop knocking on your door, you've got to find something to do for fun. I flashed my badge and introduced Maritoko. She invited us into her flat and offered us some tea. I had been hoping for coffee, but beggars can't be choosers.

When we sat down in her dining room, a pair of binoculars sitting on a counter confirmed what I already expected about the old woman. After five years and hundreds of interviews, identifying personality traits and mental problems becomes something of an art. You just get this gut feeling, and you learn to trust it. In some cases, like this one, they leave a set of binoculars on the freaking counter.  It's less a learned trait than a simple game of "Where's Waldo". I would have been happier if she wasn't so old, which means she probably wasn't up burning the midnight oil, so to speak. Probably in bed by ten, or maybe even earlier, if she's older than I think she is.

"You're here about the explosion, aren't you?" 'Clever old dame, aren't you?' I had heard that remark about fifty million damn times today, and I was just about getting sick of it. There was a gigantic explosion, OF COURSE I'M HERE TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT IT!

"Exactly ma'am. We were wondering if you might have seen anything unusual last night? Anything you can think of would be helpful right now." The old woman was grinning like an idiot, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. Either she did see something last night and she's happy to finally feel useful, or she's simply nuttier than I had thought. I considered bringing out my taser in case the latter happened to be true.

"Well, Detective, I was up late last night, rummaging through my late husband's belongings. You see, I have horrible arthritis and sometimes just falling asleep can be such a chore. Just looking at his old stuff makes me feel comfortable..." The woman was prattling on and on; it was painfully clear why she wasn't entertaining much anymore.

"So what exactly was it that you saw, Ma'am?"

"Well, I was sitting here at the table, looking out the window, when I saw someone run into the lot. I couldn't give you a description, it was very dark, you know, but whoever it was, they were big, very big." The old woman paused to sip at her tea, obviously relishing in the attention she was receiving. I, however, was ready to throttle the woman. I had worked all day, and this was the only possible piece of evidence I had picked up. I needed this, and now! "The man was followed by 5 smaller people, I'm pretty sure they were women."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, they were much smaller than the man they were following, and they happened to be wearing mini-skirts." 'Alright,' I thought to myself, 'She was off her medication.'

"Now, the 5 girls were following this gigantic man?"

The old woman raised her hand and interrupted me, "More like chasing the man. They ran after him into the lot, but after that I couldn't see much. A couple of minutes after they entered the lot, there was a huge explosion! It even woke up Mr. Boots!" She stroked the obese Persian who had slinked up next to her, who I could only assume was the aforementioned Mr. Boots. This was fucking ridiculous.

"So, a gargantuan man was being chased by no less than five short, mini-skirt wearing girls, into a vacant lot where a tremendous explosion occurred?" She nodded vacantly. I stood up to leave, "Well, Miss, thank you for your time. If we have anymore questions, we'll be sure to give you a call." I didn't want to leave her a card, for fear that the old bat would start calling me up at my office and on my cell phone for afternoon chats. I'd had enough at this point, and quickly ushered Maritoko out with me.

I headed back towards the escalator. I had enough door-to-door action for the day; I was ready to head back to the office and wrap things up. After the escalator doors closed behind us, Maritoko leaned over to me, "Looks like we've got a Sailor Senshi case on our hands." I simple grunted.

"That Sailor Senshi stuff is a load of bullshit. I knew that old bat was out of her damn gourd."

Maritoko waved his finger at me disapprovingly, "Come on, you have to admit that there's some strange stuff that goes on in this town. Maybe there really is a Sailor Moon? I mean, the papers have even caught them on camera."

I started to rub my eyes, which were feeling leaden and weak at this point. It was getting late, and this whole escapade was beginning to be one big damn joke. I felt tired, the kind of tired that weakens your bones and destroys your mind. I needed a drink, and a bed. "So much for logic and deduction..."

When the doors swung open on the ground floor, I headed straight for the entrance, golden rays of the day's last sunlight streaming through the large double doors. The crisp, cool air swept past my face and reawakened me. Well, not completely, but I did feel a hell of a lot better now that I was out of that cursed apartment building. I headed back towards my car and waved back to Maritoko, "I'll see you later, Maritoko. I'm done for the day."

The next two days flashed by in a haze. The lab had still been unable to come to a conclusion on the source of the explosion, and they hadn't been able to completely identify the white powder that we had found on the scene. Most of both of those days consisted of going door-to-door, asking a lot of questions and not getting many answers in return. I also had to shift through the boat-load of call in tips we had received, trying to separate the cranks from the real leads. There were some people in this town that needed to find a new hobby. Most of the tips were so outlandish, they'd make for good bedtime reading, and not much more. Everything from aliens, secret government agencies, and an annoyingly large amount of Senshi theories were taking up space on my desk.

To give myself something to do, I called up Sujiro Yamoshita's office number to make sure he was in and drove down to his office. The building was swanky, to say the least. All glass on the exterior of the 30 story behemoth, with Yamoshita's office at the very top, and the interior was decked out with deep plush carpets and oak paneled walls. Various framed photographs showcased Yamoshita's greatest architectural creations and various models for some of the cities most renowned buildings were on display in his waiting room. I flashed my badge for the pretty young secretary at the door, but she seemed none to impressed with me as she led me into Yamoshita's office.

I had pulled a file on Sujiro and thumbed through it before I left the office.  His public record had some info on a handful of civil trial cases of no particular importance to me, a dead end embezzlement case back in the '80's,  and some good info on some "respectable" shareholders in his corporation.

As I had suspected earlier, when I spoke with Mr. Tatsuya, there was more than just idle speculation in regards to his links with the Inagawa-kai.  The preeminent Yakuza clan in the Tokyo-Yokohama area, these thugs had their hands deep into the real estate market, often assisting large corporations aquire new land through forceful negotiations with small-time business owners.  Simply referred to as jiageya, colorful gents would visit your place of employ and let you know that the building you were inhabiting was, in fact, very desirable.  Too desirable for you to stay there any longer.  You had two options: you could give up your land and walk out with some cash in hand and your legs still functioning, and, well, nobody needed to know the second option.

Yamoshita rushed around from behind his mammoth mahogany desk, antique no doubt, and met me halfway across the room to give me a firm handshake. He led me to a cushy brown leather seat across from his desk, before settling down himself. "Coffee?" I believe my secretary has just made a fresh pot."

"That would be great, thank you." I pulled out my tape recorder again, and set it on the desk in front of me. "If you wouldn't mind," I started as I nodded towards the recorder.

"By all means." The secretary returned from the waiting room with the coffee, and I took a few sips and waited for her to walk out of the room. "Thank you for coming by, Detective. I had actually been wondering when one of you would be dropping by for a chat." Yamoshita was 52 years old, but looked like he was in his early forties. His hair was still pitch black, so black I had to wonder if the guy dyed, and cut short to disguise his receding hairline. While he was short, he was in excellent shape and his eyes had the brilliant shine of a tiger that still had the hunt in his blood.

"Sorry I couldn't drop by yesterday, there was just so much going on."

"Perfectly understandable. Now, what can I do for you?"

"Well, it was your site that was attacked, I want to know if you've heard of any threats levied against your interests."

"You think this was an attack?" Yamoshita leaned forward intently, one eyebrow cocked incredulously.

"We're not prepared to say either way right now, but the evidence isn't pointing towards an accident.  It maybe a message of some kind, maybe a warning."

"And why would you come to that conclusion?"

"I can tell you're the kind of man who likes to play it straight, so I'll lay it out for you.  In your position, you meet a lot of people.  In real estate, probably a lot of dangerous people, people who deal in threats and warnings." I paused to take another sip of my coffee, and hoped I could turn the conversation from what I know to what he knows.

"You don't think I had anything to do with it, would you Officer?" His tone turned slightly hostile, and I was worried he might clam up on me if I didn't right this.

"No, nothing like that. I've already checked out your insurance records, and there isn't enough money in that plot of dirt right now to make a man of your stature do something this foolish." That seemed to calm him down. "But I am saying that maybe some business partners had something to do with this.  I'm not making any accusations, but there have been some rumblings about the men you associate with.

Yamoshita leaned back in his chair, "Myself and every other financial pillar in this country, if you hadn't noticed."  He leaned forward purposefully, "These men you speak of, are a legitimate piece of our cultural puzzle.  While you may not enjoy every aspect of their profession, as I assure you I do not, you understand as well as I do that they have their place."

"It might be cliche to say, but one can get burned playing with fire."

"I can assure you, Detective, that no associates of mine had an inclination to perform an act such as this.  Let me say, they don't deal in warnings."  I nodded slowly.  Bombings for the most part aren't yakuza style, they like to deal with a problem hands on, so to speak.

"They would take the head of the snake."

"They are problem solvers, if nothing else," he said stoically.  "They get down to the root of the situation.  So, was this the discussion you planned on when you made this appointment?"

"I'm looking at all possibilities right know.  As the man with the most to gain from this project's completion, I needed to touch base with you, see if you had any information for me.  I'll be in touch."  I left my card on his desk and left without an escort.  He didn't seem to have more to hide than any other millionaire in Japan.  I left the building into the crisp fall morning and headed to my car, and then to nothing in particular.  I could use a good drink.

The sharp ring of the telephone woke me up from my deep, Scotch induced sleep. I groggily raised my head from the pillow to read the alarm clock. 3:30 A.M. This had better be important, or heads were going to roll. I had been in the middle of probably the best night's sleep I had had in months. I was dreaming of that small apartment Jun and I used to share, of the cold nights I would come home to see her waiting up for me. She always knew how to chase it all away. She just had this way of making me forget all the ugliness that I had to wade through everyday and just make me feel...good. It had only been a dream, but I swear I could feel warm arms around me, and her delicate fragrance on my skin.

I quickly snatched up the phone, and answered drearily, "Yeah, what is it?" It was too damn early for pleasantries.

"Urawa? It's Mitsuhiro. You're not going to believe this, but there was another explosion about a mile from the first site. Same M.O., no sign of a bomb or accident, but there's still some of that white powder all over the ground." The liquor and sleep wore off instantly, and I reached for my clothes. I needed to get there, and soon while the scene was still hot. I knew that every chance that came my way, I had to take.

"Where is it? I'll meet you there!"

"Setsuna Memorial Park."

"Great, I'll see you in a few minutes."

Author's Note:

That's the end of Chapter 1.  This is something that I've been working for a LONG time, off and on.  It's an idea I found interesting, mixing a police procedural with the senshi, but could never find the time to finish it.  I've definitely got the motivation this time around, so expect to see a new chapter out soon.  Comments are, of course, appreciated.  You can contact me at    


	2. Chapter 2

When I arrived at the scene, I didn't bother with the street cops and immediately searched for Mitsuhiro. With any luck someone had found something already. I found him standing by his white Mazda, talking rather hurriedly into his cell phone. As I looked around the park, dozens of CSI members scurried around, their numbers eclipsing even those of the first crime scene.

The park itself was fairly small, really only a tiny green speck on the face of Tokyo, consisting of a few trees and some open fields for recreation. The smoking crater lay at the south end, only about a hundred yards from the street, but obscured by some bushes and other assorted foliage, making it nearly impossible to see from the sidewalk. Besides, the park is typically deserted this late at night.  Any visitors to this neck of the woods at this time of night could only generously be described as "unsavory".

"Urawa! You got here fast."

"Well, the streets are pretty empty tonight, so I saw no problem in breaking some of our speed limits." We walked around the circumference of the crater, surveying the Techs, "So, when did this get called in?"

"Around 3:00 is when we got the first call, and the first cars pulled up around 3:05. No witnesses in the area and no one in custody." No surprise there, it seems like getting evidence in this case was going to be as much fun as pulling teeth. "Still no casing as far as we can tell, and the explosion is roughly the same size as the first case. Plus, there was more of that white powder, though most of it has blown away by now."

"Speaking of which," I lit a cigarette and took a long draw, "did you hear anything else about our mystery powder."

Mitsuhiro lit a cigarette of his own, "Nothing. We know that it's an organic material, it's cells bearing a resemblance to human skin cells, but not by much. Also, we know it's non-toxic. I'm not exactly sure what to do at this point, I've never seen anything like it."

I sighed, "I know what you mean." I took another long draw from my cigarette before I started off in the direction of the line of street cops who had started to canvas the park. "I'm going to check out the rest of the park, I'll catch up with you in a little while." Mitsuhiro simply nodded before returning to his cell phone.

I walked absentmindedly towards the east entrance, casually scanning the well cut grass for anything out of the ordinary. So far, it just looked like any other municipal park. I was already getting sick of this case, and we were only three days in. Three damn days, and not one clue as to what we're dealing with. There was a whole crew of experienced men and women, and none of them could come up with anything. It's a bad sign when Tokyo's finest aren't good enough to do their own damn job. More than anything, I felt like I was failing them all. I was already fed up with the case, and it had barely even started, which is not the mindset a lead detective should be in. I would really have to get on top of this case, or it could just squirm out of my reach for good.

Then something caught my attention: some rustling in the bushes to my right and a few scattered, hushed voices. I crept slowly towards the crop of bushes, wishing I had brought a gun with me. Most cops in Japan don't carry firearms, but right now I felt that the cold weight of a pistol would calm me down. As it was, my heart was racing as I neared the voices, which were starting to become more distinct. "Usagi, how could you leave it here? You're supposed to have it with you at all times!"

"I couldn't help it, Rei!" the second voice hissed. "I must have dropped it when that youma jumped out of the bushes at me!" I could hear a slight quiver building in the voice, which sounded distinctly like a young girl. My heart rate began to slow, but my anxiety was now quickly being replaced with annoyance and curiosity. 'What the hell are these girls doing at a crime scene in the middle of the night?' "It was so scary, you guys!"

"Oh, don't cry you baby! I honestly can't believe you sometimes!"

"Would you all just keep quiet," a third voice interrupted. I had reached the end of my patience; I was done listening in on these kids, and I was going to find out exactly what the hell was going on here. I slid quickly towards their cover and parted the branches with one sweep of my arm. There were five girls, illuminated in the glare of my flashlight, more than I had heard talking, and all seemed to be around 15 or 16 years of age, too young to be out here this late.  They all seemed well spooked, but only a blonde, with what must be the ugliest haircut I've ever seen, made a noise.

"This is a police crime scene! What the hell are you girls doing here? Didn't you see the tape, or the cars? Speak up!" None of the girls uttered a word at first, they looked too scared and confused to give me a straight answer anyway, but the tall brunette eventually came forward.

"I'm sorry, sir. My friend lost her compact here earlier, and we just came to help her find it."

A look of complete disbelief washed over my face, which didn't seem to make the girls any more comfortable. "So you're telling me that you girls came out here in the middle of the night, past a dozen police officers, to look for some lost make-up?"

Another girl, the one who had been ridiculing her friend by the sound of her voice, stepped forward quickly, "It's very expensive make-up, sir. Usagi's mother would be very upset if she found out that her daughter had lost it."

"It was a birthday present," a second blonde perked up.

"Okay, hold on a damn minute. Who is Usagi?" The girl with the weird pigtails stepped forward, looking embarrassed and flustered in equal measure. "Usagi, did you really need to get everyone up at three in the morning to look for makeup? I don't care how expensive it is, it could have waited till the morning.  But I can't imagine that anyone your age could possibly be that stupid. So, is that really why you're out here? Looking for make-up?"

"Um...yes?" Wow, that was one of the most unconvincing answers anyone has ever fed me, and I've been working this beat for several years. Most of the girls seemed even more nervous at this point, and it looked like the one with the black hair was jabbing Usagi rather forcefully in the ribs.

"Oh!" We all turned towards the blue-haired girl, who had up to this point been totally silent. She bent down into the grass and picked up a small white compact and handed it to her friend, "Here it is, Usagi." She turned towards me and bowed deeply before speaking nervously, "We apologize for troubling you, sir. We didn't mean to interfere." All the girls bowed too, and most seemed fairly genuine. I stroked my goatee thoughtfully, while I pondered what to do. These girls were acting strange, there was no doubt about that, but I couldn't imagine a few teenage girls had anything to do with this mess. Besides, we didn't have any evidence to go on, so even if I felt that there was something these girls were up to, I couldn't do anything about it.

"Okay, I'll let you girls get out of here. But next time, be more careful, and pay attention for God's sake. What if there was a psycho on the loose around here? If you had just waltzed onto the crime scene, I could be scooping your guts into a plastic bag right now." The girls bowed again when I had finished my spiel, and started out towards the east exit. They were almost out of the park when I yelled to them, "And don't be out this late! Next time I see you out at this time, I'll write you up for curfew!" Goddamned kids.

I didn't bother going back to my apartment, even though the first rays of light wouldn't be breaking for several hours still. Too much to think about, and so much still to do. I needed to get started on this new explosion as soon as I could, so that meant sleep was out of the question. Hell, I doubt that I could have gone back to sleep even if I wanted to. Adrenaline was running through me now, and I felt like I could tear the world apart with my bare hands if I wanted to. It's one of those days you live for, when you come to fully understand what you were put on this Earth to do.

I hung around the scene for a little while longer, till I felt that nothing new was going to develop anytime soon. I was better off heading back to HQ and getting some paperwork done while it was still too early to try tracking down possible witnesses. I started to feel the gnawing of hunger at the back of my stomach, so I dropped by a small café and picked up a bagel and one damn big cup of coffee.

Back at the station, I chatted with some of the other early-birds, sharing stories from the job and all the usual macho bonding B.S. Eventually, I meandered my way towards my desk and plopped down in the stiff wooden rolling chair the department had so generously issued us. It felt like I was sitting on a rock, a daily reminder from my government Overlords about how much I hate being in the office.

Well, I could whine all day, or I could get started on a few reports. I opened the top drawer of my desk and rummaged around for some forms. The drawer looked like it had seen it's own explosion, what with all the paper, pens, and notes strewn about in there, with absolutely no thought given to organization. While I rummaged through the desk, my hand grasped the cold steel of my pistol. It was my Standard Issue .38 revolver, a piece of weaponry I hadn't picked up since the day I had finished training. I had put in 60 hours of training time with that pistol, and I had no inclination to pick it up again, but holding that gun again reminded me of my Father. He was an Officer in the military for years, and even though he saw little in the way of real combat, he always gave the impression that he was ready for it.

Dad moved the family around for a couple of years before settling in Osaka, where he  worked with civilian engineers in developing new anti-weapon technology, or that's at least what Mom told me after he died. Despite his day ob, Dad was also a gun aficionado, or gun nut, depending on who you spoke to.  Even though holding onto his guns was incredibly illegal, especially for a guy who had spent his life obeying orders. He always believed that the only protection you could count on was the kind you made yourself, and I think he always hated the government for enacting the ban.

Now, I was starting to think about earlier in the park, when I first heard that rustling. I swear, my heart turned to lead and plummeted to my feet when I heard that commotion. Maybe, with a case as weird as this, it was a good idea if I took a few extra precautions. You never know when everything can take a sudden turn, and the one time you need your pistol is the day you decided to leave it in your desk. Then of course, if I'm this jumpy, who the hell knows what could happen. What if I had my gun with me tonight? I've never even used it on the street, I don't even want to think what could possible go wrong. There's no apology that'll make up for riddling a couple of teenagers with lead.

After all that, my mind was still focused on the crime scene from earlier this morning, but for entirely different reasons this time. 'What the hell was wrong with those girls?' Everything about them seemed kind of odd, especially the lame excuse about looking for some make-up. Now I know that teenagers can do some stupid shit, but I can't think of anyone who would pull that kind of stunt. What kind of girl wakes up at 3 in the morning, realizes that their compact is missing, and establishes a fucking search party so they can sneak past a police barricade and beat the bushes?

Everything about them was fishy, but I couldn't waste too much time on them earlier. I had more important matters at hand than juvenile delinquents. But how did they manage to sneak by the street cops? There was absolutely NO way that those girls didn't happen to notice the commotion in the park, and I sincerely doubt that they had been hiding in those bushes before the first cars had arrived. The more I thought about it, the more it bothered me. 'Aw, come on, they're just teenage girls! Do you actually believe that they had anything to do with that explosion?'

"Hey, it's Dirty Harry!" I stopped my quiet introspection and looked up into the boyish face of the head night-cop, Officer Ichiro. We had both joined the squad at the same time, along with Mitsuhiro, and he was basically anointed the midnight secretary for the force. That was fine by him, I guess, since he never complained. I guess hitting the streets just wasn't his style. However, all that time riding a desk made him useful in some of my other cases. The kid was an amazingly quick reader, and I usually found that it was a good idea to leave him with some major case files and simply have him pick out the good stuff for me to go on. It was a great partnership, since it gave his ass something to do, and it kept me clear of the desk during the days.

I dropped the pistol back into my drawer and slid it towards the back, "Yeah right, like I'm going to lug that thing around with me all day. Ichiro, what the hell are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same thing, Urawa. I rarely see your carcass behind the desk, especially not this early."

"Well, I thought it might be a good change of pace." I took a sip of my coffee and started to wonder why he had come over here again. "So..."

"I'm getting to it, calm down. We've gotten a couple of calls for you yesterday, a new female suitor perhaps?" Ichiro was grinning like and idiot at this point.

"All the late nights must have turned your brain to mush. You know I don't date."

"Hey, I'm just joking with you, big guy. Actually, it's an elderly woman who says you had questioned her about that explosion the other day. You know, the one with that interesting Sailor Senshi theory."

I simply rolled my eyes. I couldn't believe someone else was falling for that crap. "You don't honestly buy that, do you? Five girls with magical powers running around the city? Come on."

Ichiro simply shrugged, "Hey, you never know."

I wasn't ready to buy anything about the Sailor Senshi, however. I moved into Tokyo with Jun about a year before the whole Sailor Moon myth hit, and neither of us bought into the hysteria. I always felt like it was some media ploy, perpetrated by toy companies and manga illustrators in order to sucker all the gullible children of Tokyo into buying a bunch of crap they didn't need. It was all a marketing ploy, and unfortunately for us non-believers, it seems to have worked. Even adults had now bought into the idea of these teenage super heroines. It was all ridiculous, the way I saw it.

I had the whole day in front of me, but I wasn't sure where to start. I decided the best course of action was probably to return to the scene and check out things again, see if there might have been something I had missed. And hey, if there was nothing there, I was at least out of the office and strolling around during a pristine autumn day. The park itself was serene, with only two cops surveying the area, and every tree was awash in golden orange and crimson red. Just being here reminded me of why fall was my favorite season. I strolled around, doing nothing but enjoying the day for a few minutes before I slipped back out of my blissful daydreaming. The park was defined by the four streets bordering it, giving it a rather basic square shape. The park was surrounded on all sides by small shops and an array of different businesses, none of which looked like they were accustomed to late-night work. I guess I could call around, poke my nose into a few of the shops and ask some questions, but I seriously doubted it would get me anywhere.

I sat down on of the cold, green wood benches that lined the main walkway of the park and smoked a cigarette. I had to think, but my brain was stalling on me. What could I do? Where could I go from here? This whole park incident had dried up the rest of my half-cocked theories dealing with the construction agency whose lot had been the scene of the first bomb. I mean, if a rival developer or one of Yamoshita's yakuza thugs was behind it all, why would they bother bombing a park? With a job as professional as this, they had to know that more bombings were just going to attract more heat, and the likelihood that someone got lazy and left evidence behind. Besides, if they were really trying to be a thorn in the side of Mr. Tatsuya, why would they pull this stunt so early on in the construction? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you wanted to bring someone to their knees with a couple of pounds of dynamite, you were going to want to do as much damage as possible.

The big thorn in my side was the fact that Mitsuhiro hadn't called me back today. I was hoping the fresh samples they gathered last night would have yielded some kind of results, but my cell had been dead quiet today. I was going to talk to some of the shop-owners to see if anyone had been working late, but my better bet was to see if any of those aforementioned seedy characters had been hanging around here last night. I called Personnel from my cell and was quickly connected to the desk of Detective Akamatsu, lead vice cop in this district. He sounded gruff over the phone, probably a burley guy in the flesh. "Akamatsu speaking."

"Hello, Akamatsu. This is Detective Urawa. I'm running that mysterious explosion case."

"Oh, sure. What can I do for you?" He lightened up noticeably.

"I'm sure you heard that there was a bombing at Setsuna Park last night, around three o'clock. I was wondering if you knew of anyone who might be "peddling their wares" around that park? Anyone on your radar that would be out here?" If anyone knew the dealers in this area, it'd be the lead vice cop.

"Definitely, that's Yuichi Kamakura territory, one of the south-sides biggest speed dealers. Bastard's been making my life hell for the past four years. He's part of the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate, real asshole, too."

"Think this guy was out dealing last night?" I hoped my voice didn't sound pleading, but I was feeling pretty anxious at this point. If this Yuichi guy was in on this, could all these explosions possibly be drug related? Yamaguchi-gumi is Japan's biggest Yakuza syndicate, and one of the most violent. Could this all be gang warfare? It didn't seem plausible though, rival gangs were more prone to pavement hijacking or maybe a shoot-out. I hadn't heard of a Yakuza bombing in years, way before I was on the force at least.

"No damn way. We were finally able to pick him up on possession and sale of narcotics charges. Yuichi was taking it easy in a cell downtown last night," he finished with a little bit of bravado.  I could almost see him polishing his laurels as we spoke.

I cursed my luck under my breath, but pressed forward. "Any chance that the syndicate put someone on his turf, kind of like a substitute?"

"No way, not this soon. Maybe in a few weeks, but they know we're going to have a few patrols a night going through the park to clean up after us, maybe pick up a few stragglers."

I tried a different angle, "Well, have you heard any rumblings about a turf war?  The first bomb site was owned by a developer with ties to the Inagawa-kai, and now I've got an attack on Yamaguchi-gumi turf."

"Our undercover men haven't heard anything, and that's the kind of thing they wouldn't be keeping to themselves."

"OK, well, what about any guys in Inagawa that have a rep for explosives?"

"Explosives?  Yeah right," I could hear him chuckling on the other line.  "Listen, these guys want you to KNOW who hit you.  Bombs are too impersonal.  Frankly, it sounds like Aum Shinrikyo stuff."

I shook my head, "Terrorism doesn't seem likely, those types go for high impact.  Well, if you could keep your ear to the ground for me, that'd be appreciated."

I thanked the Detective for his time and hung up. I'd have to check the arrests from the last couple of nights, see if some of the syndicate's girls had been picked up at some point in the last week, and hope that one of them had been working near the scene.

The rest of the day had passed uneventfully, unfortunately for my minute attention span. I took my own advice and dropped in on some of the nearby shops, who all told me that they had been closed earlier in the evening, and no employee of theirs would have been at work that late. The rest of the time I spent trying to get a hold of Mitsuhiro, with absolutely no luck. With nothing left to go one, I called it an early day and dropped by a small bar about a block from my apartment. A beer had sounded great the whole day, mainly because I was desperately staving off boredom, and some kind of intoxicant was bound to be more interesting than shuffling around a dead park and some boring Arts and Crafts stores.

I slid into a booth by the window and ordered a tall glass of Asahi Super Dry. I took a long sip and savored the feeling of cold beer sliding down the back of my throat. I lit a new cigarette and took a quick drag before settling back comfortably. The night was cool, but not cold enough to require a jacket. The street lights lit up with the same golden orange as the trees, and every street seemed engulfed in a sweet melancholy. Slow gusts of wind made leaves dance down the sidewalks, and couple held each other tight to keep each other warm in the cool air. It was a sweet scene, I thought to myself as I took a long sip from my glass, the kind of display that royally blows when you're all alone. But I had my beer, and my cigarette, and my thoughts, so I guess things could be worse.

I was busy staring out the window, barely even paying attention to the people passing by. The beer had instilled a peace in me, deep enough to stop my minds ceaseless chatter for little while. It was getting late, and I was on my fifth beer when something caught my attention down the block, on the opposite side of the street. It was a girl, a schoolgirl to be exact, running down the street. She had on the typical blue dress and white blouse combo that most Juuban students wore, but her hair was done up in the most bizarre pigtails I had ever seen. 'Hey, I know those pigtails from somewhere!' Even in my current state of increasing inebriation, I couldn't forget hair that ghastly. It was that girl, Usagi, from the damn park last night! I checked my watch, which read 11:30, and thought about getting up from the booth to follow her. I told her if I caught her out past curfew again, I was going to write her up for it.

However, the beer had settled itself comfortably in my stomach, and the premise of chasing a sixteen year old girl around didn't sound like too much fun. 'Eh, I'll let it slide again, no big deal really. I had only considered stopping her cause it might liven up my night, anyway.' I settled back into the booth and watched her run up the streets towards me; she was talking into her makeup compact, by the looks of it. I took another deep swig of my beer, 'She is one weird girl. What the hell is she doing?' Before she got all the way up to the bar, the schoolgirl cut a quick right down an alleyway.

With her gone, I polished off the rest of my glass and signaled for another. Seeing that girl with the freakishly weird pigtails made me flashback to the whole scene with those girls last night. Everything about them seemed odd, but I wasn't quite sure what the hell it was. It ran deeper than their ridiculous motive, or their sneaking around in the bushes, or even their generally skittish behavior. It was like I knew the girls, like I had seen them before, but I just couldn't remember where. Almost like Deja…vu.

I was halfway through with the new glass when the radio that was resting on my hip blared to attention. I jumped a little bit and spilled a drop of my beer on my crotch, making me look like some kind of louse. I unhooked the radio from my wristband and turned down the volume, which had been turned all the way up.

One of dispatch's finest was blurting out an APB at a hell of a pace, "Attention all units, disturbance reported at 7-6-3 Minato, Azabu-Juuban, across from the Metro Book Station. Please report." I snapped out of my daze with a jolt and slapped some bills down on the bar before I ran out of the bar at full tilt. 'Shit, that bookstore is only a few blocks from here!' Even though I was off duty, I figured reporting for this would even things up between me and the taxpayers for all my dicking around this afternoon.

I raced north two blocks, but the playground at 7-6-3 was completely barren. I grimaced, then snatched my radio off my belt again, and spit, "No one at the scene, dispatch. Any help?" I took a breather and scanned the block for any sign of a fight, and was just about to make another call to dispatch when I heard a loud explosion coming from a block over. I raced off into the direction of the blast, brushing past men and women who had stopped in their tracks, some shocked, some curious.

The blast had come from an alleyway, between a local arcade and a mom and pop bakery, and it seemed like everyone occupying a business on that block had come to gawk in slack-jawed stupification at the scene. Odds are whoever was behind this had managed to slink off in the crowd, and I couldn't help lighting a cigarette when I noticed that all too familiar white powder drifting off down the city streets. This time there was no crater, no real sign of an explosion period, but that goddamned powder was proof enough for me that my case had just taken a turn for the better. I slowly exhaled the smoke and enjoyed the flavor, rolling the cigarette in my fingers while I grinned like a maniac. With this many people, someone had to see something that could finally bust this whole damn thing wide open.

The cavalry arrived quickly and started rounding up people for questioning while I chatted things up with one of the older cops. Seems a concerned businessman called it in on his way home from work after hearing a commotion in the park. While he was unable to give a description, he did say it seemed to involve quite a few people, and by the commotion described, this was no study club. If I could find that guy, I'd give him a damn hug right now. "So, Urawa…" The cop paused mid-sentence and sniffed me suspiciously, "…have you been drinking?"

I tensed up, having completely forgotten about my rendezvous with the bottle earlier that evening. 'Shit, I must look like hell, and I probably reek.' I tried my best to straighten my hair and smooth out my suit while I played off my current state of inebriation, "Oh, just a few beers after work, you know how that goes. No big deal though, I'm perfectly fine." I was about to continue when something caught the corner of my eye, 'It's those Pigtails! What the hell is she doing here!'

My mind began to race through the possibilities at full speed, and I was forced to use every ounce of my will to keep my jaw from slipping out of it's socket and dropping to the floor like a cartoon character. 'You've got to be kidding me, we're on the other side of town! What the hell are the odds she'd be at two crime scenes in one day, at opposite ends of the city?' Not very bloody likely, was my conclusion.

I started to walk in the girl's direction, before turning on my heels and calling to the cop, "Hey, I'm going to walk south, bring a car and follow me. If my hunch is right, we should be taking in five suspects. Got that?" The cop nodded dumbly before taking off in the opposite direction, looking for his squad car. I started back after the girl, making my way through the crowd of onlookers, which was growing by the minute. I swiveled around for a second in the middle of the crowd, scared that I had lost sight of her, but noticed her walking briskly through the outskirts of the crowd. I broke through as fast as I could and tailed her, making sure I didn't do anything to catch her attention. If my gut instinct was right, she was going to rendezvous with her little friends, which was my ticket to round them all up and find out what they know.

Usagi continued down a half block before she ducked into an alleyway between an appliance repair store and a small café. I walked up to the display at the appliance shop and motioned for the cop, who had finally caught up to me, to park alongside. I was only a few feet from the corner, but I could hear their muffled conversation, which was pure fucking gold.

"You guys, that was really scary back there. What was that thing?" It sounded like Usagi, and you could tell by the tone of her voice that she had just been given the shock of her life. But considering this girl dragged all of her friends out to a crime scene in the middle of the night, the biggest shock of her life might be breaking her nail or hearing about the birds and the bees.

"It's energy signature is radically different from any adversary we've faced so far. It seemed to possess paranormal abilities far beyond that of most youma, suggesting perhaps a new sub-species or advanced conception methods." There's a long pause. "It's not a normal youma, in other words."

"You can say that again, I didn't even hear it sneaking up on me until it attacked.  Luckily I was able to get the call out."

"You see, Usagi.  If you had been with Minako like we had planned, instead of running off to see Mamoru, she wouldn't have been in so much danger!"

At this point the conversation became rather muddled, with two of the girls arguing, the smarter girl and an unknown, older person having a discussion about their next course of action, and the other two trying to end the argument between the first two. The elder cut in to the girl's argument loudly, "Usagi! Rei! This is neither the time, nor the place, if you two hadn't noticed. Let's get back to the shrine, and quickly!"

'Alright, now it's my turn.' "Going somewhere, ladies?" My confidence was short-lived though. Oh, the girls from the crime scene were there alright, still clad in their school uniforms, but the sixth, elder suspect was nowhere to be seen. There had been six voices, alright, but there was definitely a shortage of bodies in the alleyway. Right now, there was only the five girls and a stray black cat, and unless cats have started talking, I've got quite the conundrum on my hands.

The girl's made a satisfactory "EEP" when I barged in on them, but clammed up immediately and focused on trying to compose themselves. I decided to seize the advantage and throw some questions at the group while they were still on edge, and simply pray that one of them would slip up.

"What a coincidence, running into you girls again, and so soon! Do you make a point of showing up at every crime scene, or am I just lucky?"

The other blonde, I think they called her Minako, managed to find her voice, "I'm sorry, sir, but what crime scene?" She followed that up with a thoroughly convincing display of ditziness.

"Are you an actress, miss, because you almost got me with that one. Too bad I saw your friend Usagi leaving the scene just a few blocks back, so you can drop the farce." I caught the dark-haired girl shoot Usagi a venomous look, which almost made me smirk, before I continued, "Listen girls, you can come clean with me right now, and drop the dumb routine, or I can take you young ladies down to my precinct and we can discuss this there. If you're willing to work with me, I won't get your parents involved with this either."

The mention of their parents caused Usagi to well up with tears, and the rest to shuffle nervously and stare at their feet, with the exception of the tall brunette Matoko and the blonde Minako, for some reason. "By the way," I started, scratching my head, "where's your other friend? I heard six voices coming from this alley..." The black cat that had parked itself at the girls feet gave a loud "Meow", which almost sounded like a question, or as close as it could get. I let out an audible sigh, 'Great, that cat's the only one saying anything here.' They knew something, that much was obvious, and they were doing a piss-poor job hiding it from me. Unfortunately, it looked like this little conversation was going to have to continue downtown, because I wasn't getting anything from these girls out here on the street.

And that's chapter 2.  I should have another chapter out within the next 2 weeks or so, but feel free to contact me at if you have any questions or complaints.  I have some plans for Urawa after this story is done, but I'm not going to mess up canon with him.  Let me know if there's anything you'd like to see more or less of.


	3. Chapter 3

After I radioed for another patrol car, I split up the group and took Usagi and the girls named Makoto and Ami with me, while the other two, Rei and Minako followed in the second cruiser. Usagi was crying profusely, managing nothing more decipherable than a few sniffles in the front seat. The other girls simply sat dejectedly in the back, with Ami occasionally muttering about how she'd never make it into med school with an arrest record.

After a couple of blocks, however, Usagi's crying went from obnoxious to oppressive, and I was worried that I would have to gag her in order to get to the headquarters with my sanity, and eardrums, intact. I decided I'd best try to calm her down before it came to that, though. "Usagi?" She gave me no response, still seemingly intent on bawling her eyes out. When my second attempt failed to shake her out of her current state of paralysis, I decided to try a different tact. "Makoto?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Is there any way to get her to stop crying?"

"Um, I'm not sure. She's pretty sensitive normally, so this is kind of a big deal." I nodded my head, since I was getting a full display of how sensitive she could be.

"She does like sweets though, though I'm not sure how much that will help," Ami offered.  I dug through my glove compartment quickly, finding a small pack of strawberry taffy towards the bottom, a relic from my long since abandoned attempt to quit smoking. This was going to have to do.

"Here you go, Usagi, I hope you like taffy." She took the sweets with a whimpered "thank you" and started to chew absentmindedly, managing to crack a smile despite the fact that her eyes were still clogged with tears. "I didn't mean to scare you girls back there, I just need some help, and I think you girls can provide it." I still thought they knew something, but this display alone was enough to assure me that these girls weren't the criminal masterminds I was after. However, I still needed to drag them in on the hope that scare tactics might jar some information out of them.

"What do you think we know, Officer?" Ami inquired, her tone even and measured.

"Well, I'm sure you've heard about those mysterious explosions all over town?" I noticed all of them nod, so I continued, "At the first scene, we got a description that loosely fits you and your friends, I crashed your little search party this morning at the second, and found you walking around the third." I sighed and rubbed my goatee, "You're all bright girls, I'm sure you understand that all of this looks like more than just a coincidence."

Usagi sniffled and squirmed in the passenger seat, but looked like she was finally loosening up, "It sounds like you've been working a lot, that must be hard on Misses..." She sort of trailed off towards the end, realizing that she didn't even know my name.

"There is no Mrs. Sugara. There was, but that was quite a while ago."

"Divorced?"

"Yes, about two years ago."

"That's so sad!" Her eyes started to well up again as she took another bite from the taffy. "Why did you divorce?" Ami and Makoto were starting to look uneasy, undoubtedly uncomfortable with the idea of Usagi dredging up an emotionally stressful period in my life.

"Well, I guess you girls are old enough to understand that a marriage is a very special, but very delicate partnership. No matter how strong your bond, there's a lot of time and work that needs to go into it." I paused for a second as I thought to myself. "I think I wasn't very good at that."

"Usagi, maybe you shouldn't ask any more questions," Ami suggested.

"No, it's alright, honestly." Actually, I wanted to keep going, mainly because it seemed to keep Usagi under control. "So, she left me. I can't really blame her for doing it either; it's understandable."

"I'm sorry, Sir," Makoto offered with a genuine look of concern.

"Eh, you can call me Urawa. I hate being called Sir, it makes me feel old."

"How old are you?" Ami and Makoto cringed at their friend's audacity, but I couldn't help but laugh. She was riding in a police cruiser, being dragged down to headquarters, but she had no reservations about probing into my personal life. I wonder if it's naiveté or guts.

"Twenty-five, so I'm still pretty young."

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

I stammered a little bit, "Um...no, I don't really date that often."  Now Makoto seemed thoroughly interested in this impromptu Q and A session, while Ami seemed largely detached from the gossip, gazing out of the window while we fought through rush hour traffic.

"So, what kind of girls DO you like?" Usagi was still chewing away at the taffy, like a cow chewing on its cud, but it felt like her eyes were boring a hole through the side of my head.

"Good God, are you in law school?"  The tears started to form on the rim of her eyes again, so I snapped, like a nervous dork being interviewed for a video dating service, "I like taller women, dark hair, competitive, independent..." I could almost feel beads of perspiration forming on my forehead as I stammered on. I glanced over and caught Usagi playfully reaching into the back seat to nudge a blushing Makoto. "…and especially women over the age of 21," I added with all the emphasis I could muster.

"Aw," Usagi started, playfully, "No younger women?"

As I looked out of the hole I had dug myself, I knew that getting out of this jam was going to take all the weaseling I had in me. "Listen, I'm not planning to go to jail, thank you very much.  I know too many people in there, and let's say that we're not exactly friendly."  As I prepared to dissuade the girls from any notion that I was some kind of pederast, my salvation appeared in front of me, "Hey, look, we're here! Police Headquarters! Time to get out girls!"

We sat all the girls in one interrogation room; Officer Ichiro and I proceeded to engage them in some light conversation, just to loosen them up and make them feel comfortable. We were going to have to take a light touch with these girls, Usagi in particular.  "So, Usagi, since you decided to shine a light on my own personal life, why don't we talk about you?  Do you have a boyfriend?"

Usagi's eyes became a starry mess and her cheeks flushed while Rei rolled her eyes.  "My sweet Mamoru…" she exclaimed wistfully, her voice so sugary and saccharine I worried I was coming down with diabetes.

I put my own disgust with young love to the side for the moment, zeroing in on Rei's apparent disgust with this display of mush sentimentality, "Something wrong, Rei?"

"Nothing important, Sir," she huffed with annoyance.

Minako chimed in, "Oh come on, Rei, you're still not over it?  That was so long ago."

"Ok, I'm lost, can you fill me in?"

Minako leaned in towards me conspiratorially, her voice hushed like an agent out of a B-grade spy movie.  "Let's just say that there was some competition for our Mr. Chiba."

"Do you really need to play the gossip all the time?" Reis interjected, flustering Minako.  Rei smirked, "Maybe if you spent less time worrying about other people's personal lives, you might have a boyfriend of your own now."

Minako jumped to her feet, tossing her chair across the room.  "That's crossing the line!  There happen to be dozens of guys dying to take me out.  Like you're some kind of expert on men anyway, the closest thing you've got to a man in your life is your grandpa!"

The two were now face to face, and I began to wonder exactly how much money their parents could sue me for if this thing got ugly.  Luckily, Makoto and Ami split the two up before any fists started flying, and I was able to redirect my attention to Usagi, who was still locked in blissful state of unawareness.  "Usagi, how old is Mamoru?"

"19, why does that matter?"

"Wait, wait, wait…19?"

"Is that a problem," Usagi asked nonchalantly.

"Yes, that a pretty big problem!  You do realize that the age of consent in your prefecture is 18, don't you?"  I could feel my blood pressure starting to rise.  "Has he touched you?  He has touched you, hasn't he?!  Where does this guy live?"

I was ready to rush out the door and bust some Lolita loving skulls when Usagi stopped me, "Mamoru has never done anything to hurt me, I mean we've only kissed…wow, you're worse than my parents."

I slowly sat back down, but jotted a note and passed it to Ichiro.  I wanted whatever dirt there was on this creepy pederast before I paid him a personal visit.  I got myself a name, and since this guy wasn't above fooling around with two underage girls, he probably wasn't above dabbling in amateur demolition.  I was ready to start playing some hardball with the girls when Chief Yamaga burst into the room.

"Urawa, I need to see you out here right now."

I excused myself before stepping outside, finding the Chief standing in front of the two-way mirror that separated the Interrogation Room from the main hallway. Chief Yamaga was a paunchy old man with graying hair and a thick broom mustache, your usual cop cliché come to life. Years riding the desk had made him kind of doughy, but despite his lack of a bite, he still had plenty of bark, which he used whenever he got the chance. "Urawa, are you some kind of pervert? What the hell are you doing?"

"Oh, just having a little discussion. These girls know something, I'm damn sure of it; I'm just getting ready to sweat it out of them."

"It sounded like you were making girl-talk when I went in there. I've read your reports, or should I say Ichiro's reports," his tone causing me to cringe a little. I guess he figured that I was letting Ichiro do my paperwork, but that wasn't such a big deal. "I don't see any probable cause for this.  Do you have any idea what kind of hot water we'd be in if anyone caught wind of what you're doing?"

"Chief, we found these girls at every crime scene..."

"Wrong, you caught them at one," he interrupted. "You got a spotty description at the first scene and just happened to notice one of the girls in the vicinity of today's attack. That's not enough to round them up!"

"It's all under control, Chief. They're fine, no one is complaining, and I promise we'll make this quick, but I'm on the verge of something here, I can feel it."

He huffed through his mustache, and I knew he was going to put on the tough guy act for me, but he knew just as well as I did that until one of these girls cried for Mommy, we hadn't stepped out of bounds. This was the ONLY lead I had, and I needed to at least check it out before I discarded it. "Alright, finish this thing up. But make it quick, you're wasting space in there!"

I finally hit the girls with the real questions, but unlike the gossip they had participated so readily in before, every one of them clammed up during my second line of questioning. No matter what angle I came from, I was greeted with either awkward silence or a hesitant, questionable response. During the whole hour, there was this thought gnawing away at the back of my skull, 'Why are these girls so familiar?' It was the same odd sense of deja-vu I had felt earlier, and it was only getting stronger the longer I was with them. 'Where the hell do I know these girls from?' Unfortunately for me, time was winding down, and I had nothing to hold these girls on.

Considering the hour, Ichiro and I took separate cars and dropped the girls off at their homes. I took Makoto, Usagi, and Ami again, but most of the drive was spent in silence instead of embarrassing badgering like the first trip. I dropped Usagi off first, and then Ami, but I didn't bother getting their parents involved, though I felt like having a long discussion with Usagi's father about this Mamoru character. Makoto was the last on the list, and when I pulled up alongside her apartment building and put the car in park, I turned around in my seat so I could face her, and calmly asked, "I know I've asked a lot of questions today, but I need to ask one more time, is there anything you want to tell me?"

She simply shook her head "no", but I noticed hint of red appearing on her cheeks. She was embarrassed by the situation, maybe, but her will was still iron. She brushed her bangs from her eyes and looked me in the eyes, "No, there's nothing. But I understand why you did what you did. I mean, it's your job and all, and I can see why you were suspicious of us." Her eyes were intense, and I couldn't help but be taken aback when she answered me so straightforwardly.

"Listen, I can understand why Usagi would be scared to come forward, but I can tell that you're the type of person who knows right from wrong."

"I guess I can't convince you that Mamoru is actually a nice guy," she shrugged, grabbing her book bag. "I know the age difference seems kind of strange on the outside, I thought it was weird at first too, but there's more to the two of them than most people realize.  It's no lolicon thing."

"Let's just say we'll agree to disagree.  Well, I'll probably be in touch, just in case something comes up." I reached into my coat pocket and handed her my card, which made her cheeks an even deeper shade of red. "If anything comes up, give me a call, ok?" She nodded silently, but before she got out of my car, she gave me one last glance which took me aback. It was like she wasn't even scared of me or this situation, which you couldn't say for most people. That kind of emotional strength is admirable.

I hadn't been to get much from the girls, but I did have a new name at the top of my suspect list. I might have let them off the hook, mainly because I had nothing substantial to hold them on, but that didn't mean I was going to take my eye off those girls for a second. When I had touched base with Ichiro before we took the girls home, he had been unable to find any relevant information for our newest suspect.  There was an ex-con with the same name in the database, but he was reaching his golden years, and despite Usagi's blasé attitude about statutory rape, even she couldn't mistake this guy for 19. A few calls to local area colleges provided a couple of names to mull over, but with Usagi shut up like a clam, there was no way to narrow our search down.

If my girl was really running interference for this Mr. Chiba, then she was bound to make a beeline right to him, just to let Mamoru know the heat was on.  Subtlety isn't my strong suit, but a good old-fashioned stakeout might be in order.  If I could get a face to match the name, then I could really get a lock on this guy.

I left the office feeling optimistic for the first time in days, the adrenaline of the hunt running through my veins. While I was only on day three of this case, it had felt like weeks, long weeks at that. With no leads and a worried city demanding some answers, I had felt like I was in some kind of twisted purgatory.  But now, with what seemed like a concrete lead, things were about to fall into place.

I hopped into my car and glanced over the readout I had pulled up on Tsukino Usagi before I had left. She seemed like a normal girl; well, normal was generous, but she was just another First Year high school student, no part-time job, stable family, all in all not that different from most kids, at least on paper.

That hair though, was about as far from normal as you could possibly get. I couldn't help but be repulsed every time I thought of those pigtails, which were nothing less than a fashion disaster which promised to haunt my dreams. But I couldn't put my finger on the feeling that I had seen that hairstyle before, maybe on some misguided celebrity.

The time was nearing three o'clock, so I headed over to Juuban High School to start my tail. School typically lets out at around 3:15, so I parked across the street with my binoculars by my side and waited for dismissal to roll around. I decided to make a call to Mitsuhiro while I was waiting, hoping that the fresh crime scenes may have given him some new information. His phone rang three times before he picked up, but I had to strain to hear him, his voice hoarse, undoubtedly a by-product of chain smoking and sleep deprivation.

"Hello?"

"Mitsuhiro? It's Urawa, are you alright, man? You sound like hell."

It took him a minute to answer, "Oh, as good as I can be..." He paused mid-sentence and let out a long yawn, and I could almost picture him hunched over his samples: eyes dark, stubble, hair in disarray, basically looking like some sort of deranged shut-in.

"So, how goes it? Anything you can tell me?"

"Not a damned thing. We haven't reached a positive I.D. on the powder we found at the scene, and our soil analysis has also turned up a dud. Basically, you've got a phantom explosion on you hands." I struggled to keep an exasperated groan from escaping my throat, but this dead end just brought me back to the same conclusion: trailing Usagi was looking to be my ONLY lead in this case. "What are you doing right now, anyway?"

"Hitting the streets; tailing a girl from the last two scenes."

"Got a good feeling?"

"Gets better every minute. This girl is pretty damn suspicious, and her friends are just as shady. You should have seen the act they put on at the station yesterday: definitely not Oscar caliber, if you catch my drift."

"Do you really think a teenage girl is behind all this?"

"No, her boyfriend is looking good for this right about now. Problem is, when this girl started to notice the interest level in her boy-toy, she stopped talking. He's a college kid running around town with a high school freshman, so he's the kind of upstanding moral citizen who'd let a young girl take the rap for him, or at least do his dirty work. I found her and her buddies lurking around the bushes of the park last night, and they claimed they were looking for a missing makeup compact, or something."

"Bullshit."

"Exactly. I think this Mamoru thug left something incriminating at the scene, and he sent her back to retrieve it. Smart move, no one would put a couple of young high school girls at the top of their suspect list, so if they did get caught at the scene, they'd probably just be sent home with a warning, which is exactly what I did." I almost smacked my head when my train of thought led me to the obvious conclusion. "Damn it Mitsuhiro, they probably got to the scene close to the same time we did, looking for whatever he left behind. So, they probably found whatever it was they had came for, and where hiding in the bushes looking for a way out when I stumbled onto them. They probably had the only piece of incriminating evidence with them, and I let them go!"

"Makes some sense, I'll admit."

"Why the hell else would they be hiding out in the bushes? I was suspicious of those kids when I first laid on eyes them, but I wasn't entertaining the idea that these girls were cleaning up." I groaned, unable to escape the feeling that my day was going to turn sour. "Listen, schools about to let out, and I'm going to be busy, so I'll talk to you later."

It was now 4:15 with no sign of Usagi, and I was starting to wonder if the information I got on her was up to date. Maybe she was enrolled in a different school, or she might just be out sick or something, maybe traipsing around more crime scenes with lover-boy. I was about to pack it in and head home when I caught her moping her way out of the school doors, looking absolutely dejected. 'Ah, guess our little girl isn't exactly teacher's pet.' She had probably been in detention, judging from her body language, though considering her penchant for criminal activity, it shouldn't have been surprising.

I considered getting out of my car and just tailing her on foot, but since she knew who I was now, I was better off sticking to my car. I waited till she had walked down to the end of the block and hung a left before I fired up the engine and crept up the street. I paused at the intersection and watched her walk up the block before I turned right and hooked a U-turn.

I caught up with her two blocks past the school and watched her closely as she continued up the sidewalk at the same hangdog pace, crawling up the street like the weight of the world was bearing down on her. I moved up a block, and then parked on the opposite side of the street, watching her move her way up towards me. I lit a cigarette and took a long drag before I stepped out of the car.

I hung close to the buildings, making sure I was covered by the mass of people pouring up and down the sidewalks, and continued to watch her walk up the opposite side. When she got to the next intersection, something seemed to pop into her head, and she dropped the sad puppy routine. She quickly hung another left, leaving me dashing across the intersection and dodging traffic to keep up with her. She was buzzing along now, moving in and out of the stream of humanity, her smaller frame giving her the advantage as she pulled away from me.

We were halfway up the block when she ducked into a local arcade, giving me time to take a breather across the street as she entertained herself with Taiko Drum Master. I took out another cigarette and looked for a way to burn some time. She had met up with the other blonde, Minako, and the two of them dived into a "Hokuto no Ken" fighting game.

I was puffing away contently and checking out the window display of the bookstore I had stopped in front of when it struck me. 'THAT'S where I've seen that hair before.' In the window there was a massive display for the newest Sailor Senshi novel, one of the many marketable items in the Sailor Senshi catalogue, and there was a huge cardboard cutout of the Senshi, in all their color-coded glory. 'That hair...' That's where I had seen the hair before; it was those same bizarre odango's that Sailor Moon is supposed to wear.

It's well known that I'm not exactly a member of the Sailor Senshi fan club, but living in Tokyo it was hard to escape the phenomenon, and I found myself hearing tidbits concerning them from time to time. Thing was, it was more than the hair that Sailor Moon and Usagi had in common. Actually, if you put them side by side, they'd be identical twins. I looked across the street at the girl Minako, who seemed to bear an amazing resemblance to Sailor Venus, now that I thought about it. Hell, when it comes right down to it, ALL those girls seemed to resemble one of the Sailor Senshi. 'Wait a minute...'

The condensation on the glass of my Sapporo slunk towards my fingers like sweat as I took another generous sip. I had hoped that following Usagi would lead to a break in the case, but I never thought it'd lead to something like this. This wasn't the kind of shit brought up in the manual or discussed in any sort of class. Nope, there was no "Dealing with Superheroes" chapter in the guidebook. Well, first thing I had to do was find out if they were actually the Sailor Senshi. All I was going off of right now was advertising copy and a few small shots in the girl's school yearbooks, which was nowhere near enough info to bring up with anyone; I'd just come off as some kind of nut.

Of course, finding out if they were actually the Senshi wasn't as cut and dry as I tried to make it sound. You can't just bust down the door and starting hurling accusations, and I wasn't too positive I'd have the man-power to track a group of magical teenage girls across the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan area anyway. Hell, besides, I can't even ask anyone to help me out with this; I don't want to look like some hentai, asking a couple of the guys to lend a hand while I stalked a group of underage girls around town.

I leaned back into my booth, about two blocks from the arcade I had followed Usagi to.  Though I had planned to follow her lead to Mamoru, this new information needed to be digested. The place was dark, but fairly clean, and almost completely empty, which would only make sense since it was only around four o'clock in the afternoon. I lit a cigarette and took a long drag as I contemplated the situation. Usagi could be pretty damn quick when she wanted to be, and if she was rushing off to a fight, I wasn't sure I could keep up with her.

Besides, it wasn't like anyone was going to be broadcasting Senshi sightings over the Police band. I rubbed the bridge of my nose, massaging the source of a new headache. Maybe I could talk to one of the girls, try to catch her off guard and see if she might let something slip. I doubt they've ever really been approached about being Sailor Senshi.

'But catch them off guard with what?'  I had no physical evidence to speak of, leaving the door open for them to play the same old "dumb little girl" routine that they had down to a science.  What I needed was something concrete to tie it all together, but where to start?  Usagi was a hair-trigger cry baby; just too easy to crack under pressure and become a sniveling, inarticulate mess.  Ami was the sharpest of the bunch; she wouldn't bite at whatever flimsy evidence I might be able to dredge up.  Minako and Rei, despite their boy-crazy cat fight, had the sense to keep their tongues form flapping when the heat was on. 

But then there was Makoto: doggedly loyal, with just a hint of a fiery temper under that steely resolve of hers.  Plus, there was the tell-tale signs of a high school crush that flashed across her cheeks when I dropped her off the other night.  Maybe it makes me one cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch to use a young girl's emotions against her, but I couldn't help the feeling that Makoto was just the place to start.

And that makes chapter 3.  This is the most extensively rewritten portion of my original story.  Mainly, I wanted to include the Usagi/Mamoru thing because there isn't a lot of outside reaction to the two of them together.  While it seems all fine and dandy in the context of canon (hell, they're basically immortal, a few years difference isn't that big a deal in the long run), I'm sure it would seem odd to an outsider.  As a note, while the federal age of consent in Japan is 13, most prefectures actually enforce an age of consent of 18.  As normal, R and R is greatly appreciated.


	4. Chapter 4

**So, here's chapter four, which is either the second or third to last chapter in this story, though I'm not quite sure right now.  Just a FYI, I use the phrase "yamato nadeshiko" in this chapter, which in Japanese roughly means "a traditional, desirable, proper Japanese woman".  I use it not to be some kind of wanky wapanese idiot, but mainly because the term fits so well, and there's no GOOD English equivalent.  Reviews are greatly appreciated.**

I knocked on the door of Apartment 44E, home to Tokyo PD lab technician and rabid Senshi fan-boy Shunji Sakamoto.  He opened the door cautiously, his flabby form blocking the iridescent light flooding from his small apartment.  Lifting his glasses from the tip of his nose, he scanned me from head to toe.  "Detective Urawa?"  He looked spooked, "Is there something wrong?"

"I wouldn't say that Sakamoto, I've just got a proposition for you.  I think its right up your alley."

He stepped aside and motioned me inside, "I don't know what you've heard around the office, but I don't play that way."

"Nothing like that you idiot!"  His apartment was Spartan, with the exception of a small room off to the side, a study that was viewable from the living room.  The walls were plastered with Senshi memorabilia, and every available shelf space was filled with statuettes and figurines.  An ancient drafting desk was covered with miscellaneous electronics, jumbled in a heap.  "They certainly weren't wrong about you."

"And what might that be?" he mumbled.

"A senshi otaku.  Or am I just imagining things?"

"Otaku's a harsh word, Detective.  You should know better than to label someone, especially when you're hoping to get something out of them."

He motioned for me to use a rolling office chair while he seated himself back his desk.  "So, I think you've got an idea as to why I'm here."

"Of course, you're on the Senshi case.  Let me just say, you came to the right guy, that idiot Hiroyuki Gouri from latent prints is just a wannabe"

"And what makes you the right guy?"

"Listen, I've devoted myself to the Senshi.  The lab is just something that pays the bills, but the girls, that's a real life's work.  It's one of the great mysteries of the modern age."

"Just sounds like alien studies to me.  What can you expect to get out of it?"

"Hey, it's not about WHAT I get.  The knowledge is enough for me."

"Before you sell it to some supermarket rag, you mean."

"If I ever did find out exactly who they are, I would never reveal their identities to the world like that," Sakamoto bit back.  "They're too important to this city."

"Listen I'm not here to get into your motivations for this…lifestyle.  If they are real, and they are behind everything that's been going on lately, then I've got some questions for them."

"And what are you going to do if you do track them down?  Drag them into the station like a bunch of yakuza thugs?  I don't think so."

I threw my hands up, "Hey, I never said that.  Let's just say that it's for professional curiosity, nothing else."

Sakamoto swiveled around to face me, "So what exactly do you want from me?"

I shrugged, "There are thousands of people just like you in this city, but not many that are as smart as yourself, or as analytical."

Sakamoto's face lit up with a wild smile, "You know just how to flatter a girl, Detective.  Intellectual pride is a bitch."

"I need any dirt you might have that can point me in the right direction, or maybe..." I paused as I glanced at the various gadgets placed randomly around the room, "...you've got a helpful little tool hidden around here."

Sakamoto struggled out of his chair and waddled over to the opposite wall, his Senshi sleep-pants riding down his leg before he hiked them back up with a meaty hand.  Grabbing a small, PDA-like device from a shelf, he made his way back to me and dropped it into my hands.  "I'm not giving you any information, that's a lifetime of work.  I will lend you this."

"So, what the hell is it?"

"It measures electronic wavelengths in the air."  He sat back down loudly; a little too loudly.  A voice from the floor below shouted for us to knock off the racket.  "You see, the Senshi release some powerful energy when they transform or attack.  But it's just a flash, and if you're luck enough to see it, you're still too far away to get to the scene in time.  There's no real rhyme or reason for the location of the attacks, so getting a glimpse of the girls in action is just pure luck."  He pointed to a large map of the city on the wall, filled with tiny markers.  "The antenna on this device measures electrical frequencies and is designed to hone in on any anomalies.  It can also direct you to the epicenter of the disturbance.  Now it's not going to be much of a help if you're on the other side of town when it goes off, but it will help you track them down if you happen to be nearby."

"What good is this going to do then?"

"I'm not going to give you everything I have, but I will tell you that when these fights go down, the Senshi are rarely at the same place at the same time.  The other's need to get to the scene too, so that'll buy you time."

"Has this ever worked for you?" I retorted, incredulously.

"Once.  I learned my lesson never to get too close to a battle with forces you don't understand."  He rolled up the sleeve of his shirt, revealing a bright, jagged scar across his forearm.  "I should let you know the same."

"Point taken."  I got up out of the chair.  "I'll bring this back, and let you know what I find out personally."

As I headed towards the door, Sakamoto's voice drifted over my shoulder, "Keep it to yourself!  No sense ruining the mystery for the rest of us."

I was settled into my car seat, cigarette in hand and a thermos of coffee nearby.  I had parked outside of Makoto's apartment building, intent on keeping vigil.  I pulled a file on her the day before, from the Juuban School District, to leaf through and kill some time while I was on watch.  Kino Makoto was an interesting high school girl, her personal history reading like a Victorian tragedy.  Young girl loses her parents in a horrific plane crash, is shipped off to her grandparents who can't provide her the structure she needs.  Girl becomes, as they describe, "fiercely self-sufficient", is juggled between primary schools.  Grandparents become incapable of looking after her, so in Junior High her inheritance kicks in and she rents herself an apartment in the city. 

At 13 she's living on her own, and garners herself a reputation around the schoolyard as a resident tough.  I can't help but wonder what our nation has come to when a young girl can just be thrown out into the world without anyone so much as stepping in to lend a hand.  'God, it borders on child cruelty.'  She transfers again to Juuban Junior High and apparently fits right in, at probably the same time she met Usagi and the others.  Of note were her recent elective classes: almost all Home Ec or craft studies, all pretty domesticated stuff for a bully.

Makoto struck me as the kind of girl who had had enough of the school of hard knocks.  In person, she had resolve, but there was almost a matronly way she treated Usagi when she was on the verge.  I guess it might come from the fact that she had to play mother to herself.  It doesn't take a psychologist to understand how this kind of childhood could effect a person.

I looked up at the cold towers of the apartment building, half lit by people who had nothing better to do than watch the night go by.  I knew the feeling, when the walls close in on you and you can't help but notice the echo of your own voice reverberating without reply.  You get out and try to bury yourself in anything else to make the echo go away, like the bottle, or self-loathing.  I considered myself guilty on both counts.  You might think you have something waiting for you outside, but when the door closes you realize that nobody is coming to save you.  I hope Jun didn't feel that way anymore.  Same with Makoto.

I had polished off my third cup of coffee, and was considering lacing the next one with some Amaretto, when Sakamoto's toy screamed bloody murder from the dashboard of my car.  I snatched it up and stared at the screen, which was pointing me 1.2 km south-east.  Springing into action, I threw my camera over my neck and yanked the hood of my Yomiuri Giants sweatshirt over my head. 

Locking the car behind me as I ran to the relative cover of an alleyway across the street that was swathed in darkness, my mind raced, not sure if I should bolt to the commotion or lurk outside the doorway on the chance that Makoto might still be home.  Beads of sweat started to form on my brow and threatened to inch their way down to my eyes, my heart rate beating maniacally in my chest.  My muscles had stiffened, frozen while my mind ran through the possibilities.  For some reason, I can seem my grandfather now, preparing to teach me the consequences of indecision.

Luck, however, took the decision out of my hands as Makoto burst through the front door, clad in grubby jeans and an oversized t-shirt, yelling something into the same compact that Usagi was using a few days previous.  I snapped a few shots off, shaking off the invading sensation of voyeurism from my body.

She was moving fast, and lugging the camera around my neck wasn't helping matters.  I could feel the strap rubbing the back of my neck raw, and I knew I was going to have something to explain to the boys at the office the next day.  From across the street, I noticed Makoto reach for something in her pocket as she cut into an alleyway.  Crouching behind an obnoxiously green Honda hatchback, I grabbed the camera from around my neck and brought it to ready. 

Through the lens, I could see Makoto raise what seemed to be some kind of decorative stick, and I snapped a few more pictures when she started screaming, seemingly unconcerned with drawing attention to herself.  If I ever got the chance to give these girls some pointers, I'd stress the need to **not** draw attention to oneself.  And in that vein, I'd cut off Usagi's damn pigtails.

A blinding white light tore out of the alleyway, making me see stars.  I could only make out Makoto's silhouette between the spinning strobes of light, and from what I could tell, she seemed to be quite naked.  Despite the moral quandary that this brought up, I was awed by the sheer amount of power that floated in the air, causing my hairs to stand on end and blur my vision.  The muscles in my hands began to strain around the plastic of my camera, fighting the urge to drop the damn thing and cover my eyes.

A split second later the light was gone, and I blindly reeled off shots into the alleyway.  I took a second to get my bearings, rubbing my screaming eyeballs, shaking my vision into focus just in time to see Makoto leap over a nine foot wall at the dead-end of the alley in a single bound.  I could only manage a weak, "Holy shit."  I stumbled to my feet, my muscles still tense from the ordeal of just being near her transformation, and followed her lead.  As I broke out into a full sprint, I noticed a dumpster pushed flush against the wall.  With one leap, I planted my foot on the dumpster's lid, pushing forward with everything I had.  I hit the top of the wall chest high and kicked myself up and over the rest.

The fall jolted my legs to attention, causing me to roll across the asphalt and through a broken sake bottle, kindly discarded by one of our fine citizens.  As a shard made a clean cut through my forearm, I promised myself to pistol-whip the next asshole I saw tossing bottles.  The blood started soaking immediately into my sweatshirt, but I didn't have time to worry about it.  Makoto had already made it across the street and was heading onto the grounds of Juuban High School.

I picked myself up off the ground, my arm throbbing in pain.  Dashing across the street, I surveyed the layout: a common grounds just past the entrance, surrounded by trees and thick shrubbery, obscuring the view from outside the school's gates.  All the girls were there, minus Rei, and they were all yelling hysterically at each other.  I ducked into the shrubs just to the right of the entrance and brought the viewfinder back up to my eye, snapping off shots wildly.

"Where is Rei?  She said she had chased it from the zoo into the school," Minako gasped, herself nearly out of breath.

Ami had a small visor over her eye, which looked like some kind of futuristic monocle.  Symbols flashed across its plastic screen, "Judging by the energy signature, she has to be around here somewhere."  Ami glanced at the others, "We might need to split up and search the grounds."

The girls were clad in their signature Senshi get-up, the same ones you'd see plastered on every poster, adorning every piece of memorabilia, and worn by every nerd at an anime convention.  I didn't understand the purpose of a battle uniform that…revealing.  Point number two to make to these girls: find something that will actually protect you in a fight.

Usagi jumped in to take the lead, "Alright, girls, we need to find Rei.  So let's…"

Before she could finish her sentence, a bright red blast shook the grounds, sending a plume of dust and debris flying from the western entrance.  The girls braced themselves against the gust of wind while I loaded another roll of film into the camera, covering the film with my sweatshirt to try and keep the dust out.  Finished, I brought the camera to attention again, just in time to see Rei's body come flying out the grand hall and bounce across the concrete like a rag doll.  She was limp, her uniform ragged and bloodied like she had been thrown to the lions.

The girls ran to her side in an admirable display of camaraderie; however a bookcase followed from the gaping maw of the school, flying end over end before landing between the girls and Rei, causing them to scurry for cover.  The doors of the main hall were blown off of there hinges, leaving a jagged hole in the exterior of the building.  Textbooks were strewn about, the wiring for wall-mounted lighting lay bare, sparking and flowing bright particles.  Inside, the tiled floor was blackened, while still burning papers tumbled through the breeze.

A low growl from the school shivered down my spine, paralysis working its way through my extremities, my mind numb with the tension in the air.  A shadowed form made its way through the rubble with a loud crunch, concrete crumbling beneath its feet.  Whatever it was, it was tall, at least seven feet if it was an inch, hunched and lumbering on feral legs.  As the dust settled, my mind struggled to come to grips with the form.  It reminded me of a monster from a Hollywood werewolf picture, furred and fanged and anthropomorphosized.  Moonlight highlighted the creature, enough to make out that its dark gray and black coat was patchy, and the air was fetid with the stench of burned fur.

"Ah, the rest of you have finally shown up."  My eyes and camera switched focus from the furry monstrosity making its way towards the Senshi to the school roof.  A young girl, whose red hair was tied in a series of balls, much like Usagi's odangos, before flowing into another dangling odango at the end, stood on the peaked roof of the entrance.  She was dressed like a skanky carnival contortionist, a ridiculously gaudy outfit that seemed inappropriate for a girl her age: bikini top, sheer mini-skirt, and spiky shoulder pads that seemed like she'd stolen them from a professional wrestler's locker.  "Lupus has already tried playing with Mars, but she looks worn out, wouldn't you agree?"

Makoto stepped forward, screaming, her voice on edge, "I don't know who you think you're messing with, kid, but your little puppy doesn't scare us."

"Actually, I'm a little scared…" Minako managed to gulp through her clenched teeth.

Ami, her concentration finally torn away from her computer, circled cautiously towards Usagi, her fluid movements unnoticed by the others who were still engaged in a game of one-upmanship.  I could make out Usagi silently repeating Rei's name, oblivious to the chaos mounting around her.  "Sailor Moon, Mars is going to be fine, but we need to get her out of here soon.  I'm going to bring a mist on this entire area, enough to get to Mars, but I need you to go after them.  Are you ready?"  Usagi nodded simply, reaching behind her back where a small wand materialized in the palm of her hand.

A radiant blue orb formed in Ami's right hand, floating just above her gloved palm.  With a flash she broke for Rei's body, loosing the orb which burst into a dense fog, blanketing the school in an impenetrable mist.  I instinctively dropped the camera to my side and wrapped my arms around myself for warmth, the temperature dropping to a stabbing cold.  There was no more use for it at this point; I could only hope that the pictures I had taken so far weren't ruined by the sudden change in temperature.

There was screams, but only dark silhouettes to go with them, the fog leaving everyone in the dark.  The heavy tread of the beast could be heard above it, the crackling of debris underneath its feet the only sign of its location.  From my right, a bright flash of light blinded my retinas and left me seeing stars.  Makoto screamed, "Sparkling Wide Pressure," over the din, and what appeared to be a bolt of lightning, accelerated by all the moisture, struck the Lupus square in the chest, the intense heat searing its flesh as the wolf loosed a blood-curdling scream. 

The smell of burned fur again filled the air as the monster was lifted off its feet by the power of the blast, rocketing backwards into the school with an unholy crash.  A cloud of dust obscured its landing, though the mist started to subside.  Ami and Rei were gone; Mercury must have taken her out during the chaos.  With her pet incapacitated, the carnival girl's earlier self-confidence seemed to evaporate, now that there was nothing standing between her and what looked like a very pissed off Usagi.

"I don't know what you guys are up to, or why you're here, but I'll never let someone hurt my friend and get away with," Usagi snarled as she squared herself to face off, her jaw clenched in raw hatred.

"Oh, please, like I'm going to ruin all the fun by letting you in on the surprise," she smirked.  "Well, this night has been loads of fun, but I'll have to catch you girls later."  With an exaggerated flip of her hair, she disappeared into the night sky, leaving no trace as to where she went, or how the hell she got up onto the roof in the first place.

Usagi rushed forward in irritation, "Get back here!  After what you've done, I'm due for a speech.  You just went and ruined the entire flow, now I don't know what to do."

Minako patted Usagi on the shoulder, "She's long gone girl.  We'll just have to give her two speeches next time."

"It won't be the same," Usagi sniffled, her shoulders drooped in dejection.  "I really wanted to get her…for what she did to…"

"Hey, where are Rei and Ami?"  Makoto took a look around the school, bewildered by her two missing friends.

"Ami said she was taking her back to the shrine," Usagi mumbled.  "We should probably get back there now."  Usagi turned, body still dejected, towards the gates, ambers and yellows thrown across her back from the small fires flickering just inside the school. 

She took a step to leave, Makoto and Minako prepared to follow behind her, when a roar tore its way through my ear drums.  The Lupus, shaken but very much alive, managed to claw its way out of the disaster zone that was the school hall, it's gray fur now matted with dust and blood, it's breathing labored and intense.

The youma's muscles sprang to action, the beast's legs coiled and taut before giving chase with a massive pounce, clearing the distance separating it from the girls without effort.  A long, sinewy arm flew forward, aiming for Usagi's back, with claws poised to slice through flesh and loose blood.  But the strike didn't land; Usagi was already wrestled to the ground by Minako, and the pair had sprung to their feet by the time the Lupus recovered from it's charge.

The wolf made an abrupt about-face, leaping towards Minako effortlessly.  A golden light appeared around Minako's waist, a scream of "Venus Love Me Chain!" echoed against the school's cold brick walls.  With a flick of her wrist, the golden chain curled around the monster's neck, pulling tight and digging into the fur.  Planting her foot, Venus swung with the beast's momentum, flinging it into the ground with a sickening crunch, blood and fangs flying free from its snout.

Usagi sprang forward as the Lupus wobbled back to its feet, dark blood dripping from its nose and wounded maw, pooling on the ground beneath it.

"Moon Gorgeous Meditation!"  Another blinding flash of light erupted from the school, causing me to cover me eyes out of fear of permanent retinal damage.  When the blast subsided, I immediately sought out the monster, preparing to hightail it out of there if the creature was still up and about.  But there was nothing, not even a clump of fur, left, just a fine white powder that danced in the cool breeze.  The same dust that had given me fits at all of the crime scenes.

The girls too were long gone, rightfully more concerned about their fallen ally than cleaning up the mess.  Sirens were bound to be here at any moment, so I grabbed my camera with my aching arm and took off for my car and back to my apartment.  I wasn't sure what I was feeling right now: concern for Rei, confusion about who the hell that creature's master was, and dread over my need to confront one of them with all I had seen tonight.  They managed to beat the hell out of a werewolf; I was going to be easy pickings.

I showered as soon as I got home, scrubbing the deep laceration in my forearm as ribbons of blood flowed down my shower drain.  As I bandaged myself up, I considered dropping by the hospital for a tetanus shot.  But then I thought about how, in just a few days time, the Senshi might reduce me to nothing more than some charred skin particles, and I figured that tetanus was really the least of my worries at the moment.

I poured myself a glass of scotch as I prepared my film in a converted closet, 8x10 photos hanging to dry from every available line.  I had been concerned about the film turning out well, I didn't exactly go to college for war-time photography, but so far the results had been promising.

A walked out to the living room in my robe, a few photos tucked underneath my arm, a freshly lit cigarette between my lips.  As I sat down without a hint of grace, I began to thumb through the evidence I had managed to collect.  From the second Makoto ran out of her apartment to the moment Ami eliminated all visibility with her fog, I had dozens of photos that could turn believers out of even the most simple-minded.

There was a regret lingering in me now, that I had spent so much time ignoring anything involving the Senshi, chalking it all up to misguided fantasy, that there really wasn't all that much I knew about them.  I did know Usagi was supposed be the leader, and by the way she dealt with that beast for good definitely proved that.  I know Rei was the hothead, Ami was the geek, Minako was the ditz, and Makoto was the muscle.  But the question I couldn't answer was why?  Why these girls, here and now, and for what goal?

Earlier I had wondered how a girl of Makoto's age could just be left to fend for herself.  Tonight had pretty much answered that question for me.  I knew why I really wanted to talk to Makoto, and it had nothing to do with her misguided puppy love, or any criminal investigation. It had everything to do with finding meeting a person who's in the same boat that you used to be:  the feeling that haunted me as a child that, when it came right down to it, I had no one looking out for me.  I could just imagine how she must have felt losing both her parents, because God knows it was hard enough for me to lose my father.

I called in sick the next day, a rare occasion that caught the office secretary off guard.  By her reaction, she assumed I never got sick, or at least didn't let it stop me from hauling my ass into work.  In all reality, I didn't want to have to explain my arm, or my nerves for that matter.  I knew I had to talk to Makoto tonight, before paranoia got the best of me and I fled town out of fear of youma attack.  The whole episode the night before had kept me up until the crack of dawn, and I had to slip one of my father's old revolvers under my pillow to get any kind of sleep.

The gun was, of course, astoundingly illegal.  My dad had picked it up from a drunken American GI in a card game and added it too his personal collection, which, once he died, was bequeathed to me.  Personal firearms weren't listed anywhere in his will, but my mother knew how bad he wanted me to have it.  They'd been stashed in the back of my bedroom closet for ages, and I had never even bothered to pull the things out to clean them since they were stuck in a cardboard box all those years ago.

Even after I got out of bed, there was a certain comfort when I kept the gun with me, strapped to my leg in one of my father's old holsters.  There was a self-consciousness factor to it all; the gun made me feel like an American action hero, like Stallone.  But I was willing to put my loathing for the western impulse to violence aside in this situation, because if some drooling abomination came crashing through my front door I was going to give it one hell of a fight.

I spent the day mentally preparing myself, poring over the photos and notes, jotting down thoughts to myself, constructing an airtight case.  Though I still had no idea who, or what, caused the explosions in my investigation, the carnage of the previous night left little doubt that someone in the Senshi's sphere was responsible.

There was also my desire to immerse myself in Senshi lore, so I headed down to a local book store and picked up a copy of the Senshi Encyclopedia, which boasted to be the most complete resource for budding Senshi otaku.  The girl at the check stand gave me a furtive glance as she scanned the books neon pink cover, probably worrying about me showing up to greet her after work.  I grabbed the bag quickly when she was done and disappeared, feeling the white hot glare of stranger's eyes boring into the back of my neck, like I had just stepped out of an adult book store.

Safely home, I skimmed through the book, picking up bits and pieces of interesting information.  I knew about the main Senshi, but there was apparently one or more controllers calling the shots for the team, though no one seemed to know their names or identities.  There was also rumored to be four additional Senshi that rounded out the galactic family, but I had never seen these other girls hanging out with Makoto and the gang, and the book claimed that the odds for sighting them was exceedingly rare.

As the sun headed back behind the skyscrapers and the first fingers of dusk felt their way across the skyline, I changed into my standard grey suit-white shirt-black tie combo that had the calming effect of a security blanket.  My father's revolver was still strapped to my leg, but even with that added sense of comfort, I stopped to scribble a note on a piece of paper, just in case: "If you found this, I'm probably dead.  No big deal."

My knuckles rapped against the door to Makoto's apartment, and while I waited for her to respond I became enamored with the idea of fleeing the scene, throwing the pictures away, and forgetting all about this mess.  But, as Jun would be sure to point out, there isn't a stone I could leave unturned.  So I resigned myself to fate, and turned my attention to the beads of sweat that were starting to form on my brow.

The clicking of a door lock stopped my nervous grooming before Makoto cracked the door and peered out.  "Detective?"

"Um…Hi?  Makoto, sorry about calling so late, but there's a few follow up questions I have for you, if you've got the time."  I cursed myself silently for giving her an easy out.  To my surprise she opened the door wider and ushered me in.

"I don't mind, if you don't mind the mess.  I wasn't expecting anyone."  She smiled a little, and I couldn't tell if the comment was made in humor.  "Coat?"

"No, that's fine; I can hang it up myself."  She was clad in the same jeans and sweatshirt get-up that I saw her in the previous night, though it looked more respectable in her apartment than it did when she was running through alleyways.  I took a look around the apartment, which was damn near spotless.  The atmosphere was cozy and comfortable, reasonably designed, but with more of a girly touch than I had expected.  She motioned for me to join her at the kitchen table, and I draped my coat over the back of a chair.

"Would you like some tea, I was already making a pot when you dropped by."

"Sure," I replied, eying her suspiciously.  "You seem pretty calm about me showing up to see you this late at night."

"I had a hunch you'd be showing up here sooner or later," she smirked with a wink.  "Detectives aren't the only one who have premonitions."

"What about the Senshi?"

"I'm sure they do too, but what does that have to do with anything?"  She sipped her tea calmly before passing me a cup of my own.

"So," I started, ignoring her question, "You live here alone?"

She sighed, "Yeah.  Just me; my parents died a long time ago."

"That has to be hard on you."

"It isn't easy, but I get by."

"I know what it's like, losing a parent when you're just a kid.  Kind of ruins the illusion of childhood…"

"…That someone's always looking over your shoulder, making sure you're safe."  She fidgeted in her chair, "I'm sorry to hear about your parents."

"Parent.  My father died in a car accident when I was ten, so my mother raised me by herself.  I couldn't imagine losing both though."

"Yeah, I try not to think about it."  I could see that she was shaken by the conversation, but was either too polite or too interested to change the subject.  "Your mother must have been a strong woman.  What was she like?"

"Total yamato nadeshiko," I laughed to myself, bringing a giggle to Makoto.  "Being a single mother with no man around was like a fate worse than death to her, but she did the best that she could."  I took a sip of my tea before continuing, "So, how've you managed to get by all these years?"

"My grandparents tried to help out, but they're too old to be running around after a teenager.  My parents had life insurance, so with that and the inheritance I got from my grandparents when they passed, I've been able to stay on my feet."

"At least you're not out on the streets."  I set the envelope with the pictures on the table, but didn't open them yet.  "Makoto, we've got something we need to talk about, and I hope you'll be honest with me about this."  Makoto nodded silently, so I took that as my cue to continue.  "You know that I've been suspicious of you girls, that's no secret, but there's more to it than a cop after some delinquents."

"Should I be offended that you think I'm just a delinquent?"

"I definitely think you're more than that."  That brought a blush to Makoto's face, which twisted my stomach into knots of guilt.  I felt like I was leading this poor girl on.  "I've had an idea, floating around in my head the last couple of days.  It seemed kind of crazy, until a few days ago when it just clicked.  I had to check it out, so I could be sure of it myself, and it did.  It checked out.  It made me a believer in something that for years I was sure was nothing but a rumor."

"Area 51?"

"The Senshi, you smart ass," I retorted, annoyed that she had the gall to ruin my narrative flow.  I untied the envelope and shook out the photos, spreading over the table like a mosaic.  "You are Sailor Jupiter.  I knew there was something you girls were hiding from me, I could tell in the way you spoke and the way you walked, like you were tip-toeing around a two-ton elephant in the room."

Makoto sipped her tea calmly, nudging the pictures carelessly, occasionally picking one up to peer at it.  At this point my heart was pounding, and her nonchalance was digging into me like a dagger in the ribs.  I wanted to say something else, to plead my case and get the answer, the one answer I was searching for.  But my mind had gone to mush and my throat was cracked and dry, leaving me to sip my tea quietly and wait for her to respond.

"If I knew you were out there, I would have worn something nicer."

My eyes felt an urgent need to spring out from their sockets and explode into a gooey mess.  "So…um…huh?" was all I could manage to sputter.

"What, do you want me to sign a confession, Detective?  I told you that's me, unless you just don't want to believe it."

"No, I understood you just fine.  I just wasn't expecting you to be so…"

"…Straightforward?"  Makoto laughed out loud, her voice ringing around the walls of her apartment.  "You're not the first person to figure it out, Detective."

"Then why isn't the media knocking down your door right now?  How can your identities still be safe?  Wh…wa…WHY?"  The idea that there were people walking around this city, at this very moment, who knew what I did now, and they never leaked it to someone, simply blew my mind.

Makoto seemed to enjoy making me so flustered, "Because, the people who do know are people a lot like you.  They came to us to talk about it; they didn't go gab to the media."

"What if they did?"

"I guess we'd just have to kill them."  Makoto let that comment sink in for a moment while all the blood rushed from my head, leaving me ashen and pale.  "I'm just joking, come on.  Most people have a hard time believing the senshi are even real, and besides, it's not like anyone has the evidence to prove we're the real thing."

"I'm sure everyone you know has seen the pictures, the comics, or the animated show, how have they not managed to put two and two together?"

Makoto just shrugged, "Luna suspects it's some kind of magic; that when we transform there's an illusion that tricks people's minds, and keeps them from recognizing us.  All I know is: it works, so I don't ask questions."

"Luna?"

"Our talking cat."

I paused for a moment, "I should be more skeptical of this."

"I'm not joking, and there's more than one of them.  They act like advisors, or sometimes more like handlers."

"The senshi need handlers?"

"Hey, buddy, we're still in high school.  I still have to go to class, and I've got sports, plus a social life to live besides staying up all night and fighting monsters."

"Well, it's good to know where your priorities lay."

Makoto went back to the kitchen to refill both of our glasses, "No matter what happens in my life, I never forget that I'm here to save the people of this city and protect my Queen," Makoto finished with a hint of annoyance at the suggestion that she wasn't fully committed.

"You're British?"

"Now who's being the smartass?"  Makoto leaned back in her chair, her previous smirk gone from her face, "Usagi is the future of this world, and all us girl are here to make sure she's able to fulfill her destiny."

"So there's some kind of paranormal power struggle going on at this moment?"

"It's actually been going on a lot longer than most people realize, and it won't end for another thousand years.  But we'll see our way through it all, as long as we look after each other."

"Wait a minute, a thousand years?"

"Didn't you know?  We're practically immortal.  That's why Usagi dating Mamoru is NOT that big a deal, because once you find out that you're going live at least ten times longer than a normal human being, a few years isn't that big a deal."

The impish grin had returned to Makoto's face, "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?  I've never seen this side of you before."

"Well, I don't get to talk about it that much.  Besides, you're the one who came knocking on my door like a big-shot; I figured I should have some fun with you."

"You mean have some fun at my expense," I grumbled.  "So, what's the deal with the explosions?"

"Monsters, and lots of them.  They're connected to this girl," she said, showing me the photo of the circus freak from the night before.  "She has three sisters, and all of them are able to make the kind of youma you saw the other night."  Makoto dropped the picture back in the pile and sighed, "And just when we thought we might be able to relax for a while, we have another problem on our hands."

I could feel the resignation in her voice from across the table, shattering whatever insignificant, vain notions of duty that I had when I walked in here.  This was a girl, just a teenager, sacrificing the best years of her life for a battle that wouldn't get her a cent, or an iota of personal fame, but understood that her fight was more important than any of that.  I could see her side of this now, and it was the same feeling I had when I first became a police officer: that there was a world out there that needed saving and I was called to be a part of it.

I managed to find my voice, "Makoto, I'll help you out in any way I can.  You call me day or night, you got that?"  Her eyes were cast away, so I continued, "Even if you just need someone to talk to, to someone who's been where you've been, you let me know.  There's no reason to feel like you've got to bear the burden for all of this on your own."

Her eyes met mine again, reminiscent of the first night I dropped her off here, and I could still see the steel in her gaze. But her expression softened, and I could almost see her battling her split emotions: the young girl who wants to dress pretty and meet boys, and the rough-and-tumble tomboy who wants to be the protector.  "I think I'd like that, sometime."

I picked up the photos from her table and stuffed them back in their envelope.  Tossing my jacket over my shoulder, I prepared to head out the door, but not before Makoto's voice called after me, "What are you going to do now?"

"Get rid of these," I waved the pictures.  "After that, who knows?"

"Urawa…I hope you don't mind if I call you that, please just remember something for me."

"What?"

"Be careful.  If you see anything like what you saw last night, keep your distance.  I don't want to see something happen to you."

I laughed a little, but the sound came out cold and bitter, "If there was anything right with this world, I'd be the one telling you that."


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm sorry about the long delay; it sucks when you don't have enough time to do the things you like. But here's a short chapter to let you know I'm still alive, and still working. If you want, let me know what you think.**

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Midday sun splashed across the oak veneer of my desktop, casting shadows across the whole department while I quietly stuffed the previous night's photographs into the paper shredder. Most of the other grunts had gone home for the day, leaving me to dump the evidence without someone sticking their nose into my business. I had also retrieved the tapes from the interrogation, slipping them into my pockets while the woman who kept watch over the evidence locker was fussing with her lipstick. A sense of failure sat cold and hard against my chest, much like the revolver holstered underneath my jacket. There was a time when I would have shuddered at the thought of destroying evidence, but knowing what I knew now, I couldn't risk letting someone else stumble on to this.

The photographs shredded, I pushed myself out of my seat with a sigh and crossed the room to the case board. I looked at the jumble of case numbers and names and dejectedly wiped "Urawa" off the board, marking the first time in my entire career that I had asked to be taken off a case. When I brought it up with the chief, he was notably concerned, though he seemed to worry about me more on a personal level. He saw the change in me too, within the last few months, and though he never mentioned it, I'm sure he wanted to ask me how hard I had been hitting the bottle.

"You want what now?"

"Off the case. I've been running myself into the ground, getting nowhere fast. I think fresh eyes need to be looking at this thing." My gaze wandered out the window behind his expansive desk, cluttered with files and reports, and between the jumbles of letters and numbers, people's lives, and out to the sprawl of Tokyo, bathed in golden dusk. I didn't want to look at him, or see him notice the look of dejection plastered across my face.

"You've never requested a removal, ever. What's gotten into you Urawa? Don't think I haven't noticed what s been going on lately."

I lit up a cigarette, "My heads just clouded, is all. I'm not looking for sympathy, or anything, but I don't want to weigh this case down, let it go cold."

"I've seen a lot of men go where you are now," he stated, watching me out of the corner of his eye while he lit his own cigarette. "It's a dark road; there usually isn't a light waiting for you at the end."

I could see the understanding there, written in the creases on his face which had run this town with ruthless efficiency for more than 40 years, especially in the broken veins in his cheeks, and the broken cartilage in his nose. "I'm tired of the road, but I'm not ready for the end, if that's what you're worried about."

"You're damn right I am, and you should be too. Too many people here want to take the easy way out; they think there's still honor in death. It's a coward s end," he muttered, puffing intently.

My nerves were twitching, uncomfortable with the sudden father/son turn the conversation had taken. "Anyway, I'm going to head out now; I'll worry about my new assignment later. Just leave a note on my desk."

"Hell, just take the week off." I just stood in silence for a moment, not knowing if this was an offer or a request. "Everyone needs time to unwind, remember that." He swung his chair around to face the window, waving me out the door. "Just check in with me when you get back."

I wasn't sure if he had noticed the discomfort I was in, but he also new I was a guy who didn't like being coddled. Since I joined the department his sole form of expression was verbally beating me like a rented mule; his sudden change of heart worried me. But the wind howling outside the window told me to leave it all behind, take up his offer and maybe see the side of society that doesn't end up in body bags. Maybe even see Makoto again, take her out to dinner, something to pry her out of her apartment and relax too. If I had to do it, I might as well sucker someone else into it with me. I crossed the mostly empty department floor and jammed the down button on the elevator. I considered going to the bar again, but decided I should give my liver a break and just stay in for the night.

***********************************

The wind rushed around me, grabbing at my ankles and playing with my jacket as I stepped outside of the Tokyo City Police Department's office. I headed to the train station just a block away, hands tucked inside my pockets, mindless of the human traffic around me. I enjoyed the freedom of not having to think about anything in particular, until a tap on my shoulder woke me.

"Sorry to bother you, Sir, but do you mind if I talk to you?" The voice was young and feminine, and somewhat recognizable.

"Does this 'talk' have to do with an investigation..." I trailed off as I turned around. I recognized the face, though not the T*A Private Girl's School uniform she was wearing, as Rei Hino. Gone was the snobby attitude she reserved for Usagi, replaced with the even-tempered manners of a Shinto shrine maiden. Though I had run her in with the rest of the girl's, I knew little about Rei save for the fact that there was a serious personality clash between herself and the "leader" of the Sailor Senshi.

"You could say that. Are you headed home for the night?"

"I was planning on it. This talk, is it something that needs to happen in private? If so I can find a room in the office if you need to chat."

She waved me off before I could head back to the door, "I was thinking I could just walk with you."

I shrugged, "Why not. Let's hurry up so you can get home before it gets too late." I stole a glance at my watch, wondering if I shouldn't make sure Rei ended up home in one piece first, but then I remembered the beating she administered to the youma the night before and figured she could handle herself just fine. Taking a look at her now, you could barely tell that she had a rough night as well, just a few scuffs and a deep purple bruise on her calf the only indication that she had been in a battle.

I started off again, slowing my gait to buy Rei some time while she composed her thoughts. She didn't seem apprehensive, she just stared at her feet as we moved, lost in whatever was swirling around in her mind. "This is a personal question, so I don't want you discussing this with anyone else."

"Who would I tell?" I asked quizzically, cocking one eyebrow at her.

"Makoto, mainly. She wouldn't want me meddling, is all."

"Well, what could you want to discuss that would make me run off and tattle on you, anyway?"

"I want to know your intentions...with Makoto." She was staring me down now, her eyes now showing the same fire as Makoto's the first night I met her. "She's a young girl; she can be naive, like all of us I guess. I want to make sure you're not after anything you shouldn't be."

"Listen, I'm not playing some kind of 'forbidden fruit' angle here if that s what you're interested in knowing. Men in this country have a nasty reputation when it comes to underage girls, don't get me wrong, but we're not all like that."

"I do know you went to see her last night, at her apartment. She didn't give me all the details, but it is scandalous detective."

I felt a nervous twitch developing in my left eye, my mind freaked out with the fear of some wild misunderstanding ruining my reputation, not to mention my career, and downright dread if Makoto let it slip to the others that I was on to their secret and that Rei had come all the way down here to murder my ass on this very sidewalk.

"I'm not trying to set you up, Sir. I just want you to know that Makoto is important to all of us..."

"...and you'll bust my kneecaps if you hear that I've been messing around with her, right?" I finished, cringing at the thought of a troop of young girls breaking into my apartment with pliers and a sledgehammer. "So, what exactly did she tell you that's got a bee in your bonnet?"

"She said you just talked. I'm not saying Makoto is a liar, but I know when she's head-over-heels for a guy. But, and no offense, I think you're just bad news."

"I think I need to take offense with that. I don't know where you get off coming down here and threatening me," I stopped to turn and face her while raising my voice an octave higher than was needed, leaning down to stare her straight in the eyes to hammer my point home, "but I don't need a little girl on a power-trip trying to dig up dirt where there isn't any. She's dealing with things that I've dealt with, stuff I know all about, and excuse me for trying to be the one good guy in this entire damn town that is willing to stop and say, 'Hey, I understand; I want to help'."

Rei stared right back, her arm twitching with the desire to jab her finger into my chest to punctuate ever word, "And I'm tired of seeing 'good guys' breaking young girls' hearts."

A few pedestrians were stopping to gawk at us now, making this conversation outside my place of business even more unsettling. "Come on, let's get moving. You want to take this somewhere more private now, or do you want to be a carnival act?"

She snapped her head and leveled a cold stare at one unfortunate young man, "Yes, let's go."

*********************************************

What I really wanted was a drink, a hot shot of sake that would burn my throat and numb my brain. But, with an underage girl in tow, I was forced to settle for a good cup of tea. We were seated across from each other on the cafe's patio, huddled under the ever growing shadow of a crooked maple tree that bent its way from the sidewalk to the rooftop. I pulled out a cigarette and looked at Rei for approval before lighting it. I offered one to her, but she waved it away.

"Isn't it illegal to give tobacco to a minor?"

"Yeah, and so are a lot of other things, it doesn't stop people from doing them." I puffed contentedly, waiting for her to restart the conversation. It didn't seem that Makoto had let the others know about the content of our conversation the other night, just the fact that it had happened. I appreciated Rei's concern, but I was going to have to make her understand that was misguided.

"That sound pretty defeatist, coming from a police officer."

"I'm just a realist." Rei took a sip from her tea, now that it had cooled. "Did you come down just to start a fight or did you have something else on your mind."

"I guess I wanted to have a better understanding of what you're up to, that's all." Her posture was rigidly straight, making her look like a model out of a book of etiquette.

"Is it enough to say that I'm not some sleaze ball prowling for underage girls?"

"No. Sleaze balls are usually liars." There was something bothering her; it showed in the look of irritation that was plastered on her face, like something was crawling underneath her skin and she just wanted to gouge it out. "You said you were trying to help her. What makes you think that there's something that you can do that her friends can't?"

The sun was setting further into the horizon, the shadows from the overgrown maple continued to crawl further along the concrete. "She's a young girl, growing up without any parents to watch over her. There's no way that you can replace an adult presence in her life; all kids need it, whether they realize it or not." I began to stroke my goatee, "I'm not trying to replace you, but I think there s something I can offer her that you can't."

"And what if she falls for you? Let's say you're not a predator, and you really don't want her to see you as anything more than a friend, when that day comes, what are you going to tell her that's not going to kill her inside?"

I paused for a moment, crushing the remaining embers of my cigarette butt in the ashtray, "I know what that's like, too."

Rei finished her cup of tea before standing up, her stature still straight and tall like a Victorian well-to-do. "My mother died when I was young, and my father never found me important enough to notice. Too bad I never had a kind stranger to come out of the blue to fix all my problems." She laid the sarcasm on thick, making it clear that she wasn't leaving this conversation with a much higher regard for me than when it had started.

"Are you sure you don't want me to walk you home?"

"I think I'll manage," came her reply as she already headed down the street, her head still high, but her hands clenched and pale.


	6. Chapter 6

Back in my apartment, a tall glass of iced coffee sweated on the table next to my couch, the bottle of vodka I'd usually be snuggling up to in this situation sat unopened on the bar across the room. The Technicolor glare from my television, combined with its incessant babble, went unnoticed as I stared out my living room window. I was still pondering my earlier confrontation with Rei, the admission of her own lonely past shedding light on her protective stance against me, which also introduced me to her disregard for men in general.

The senshi seemed to be more of a surrogate family for a lot of these girls, Usagi being the only member leading what most would consider a "normal" family life. It would seem the girls weren't as wildly different from each other as it first appeared. Seeing the grind that was their daily existence first-hand, I hoped to ease the burden for them, maybe give them a chance to take a break once in a while. I took a look at my hands, which were already starting to hint at my own long journey to irrelevance, and understood again that there wasn't much I could do for them.

While I was ill-equipped to deal with mystical forces operating outside my limited sphere of understanding, I could give them what little expertise I did have to offer. Makoto had mentioned that the freak show also-ran who controlled that monster was part of a group attempting to dispatch of the girls. While I might not be able to bust youma skulls, I could try and track them down, maybe pass on some information that could allow the Senshi to get the drop on these goons and wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

I lit a cigarette for myself and crossed the floor, opening up the window to let the city air in. This monster wrangler, whoever the hell she was, had to be in the city. She managed to single out Rei for an attack, which lead me to believe that she had probably been monitoring her for a while, maybe even stalking her. It could also be that the suspect just stumbled on a lucky break; Sakamoto did mention earlier that the Senshi usually end up dealing with monsters one-on-one until the cavalry arrives. Makoto didn't let on that anyone was onto their identities; well, besides myself.

Considering the outfit, this suspect had to be running her operation out of a place where that kind of get-up would go unnoticed: some kind of theme cafe, maybe a performance house, or a strip club...a weird strip club. Come to think of it, there's probably a lot bizarre theme clubs in this town that would attract the kind of clientele that would pay to watch a girl in a circus outfit work the pole.

I decided I needed to see Sakamoto again; to return his gadget and bounce some ideas off of him. I threw on a jacket and changed into a pair of jeans, snatching the Senshi tracker off my kitchen table before I ran out the door. The device sagged in my jacket pocket, bouncing as I loped down the steps of my apartment building onto the streets of Tokyo. Heading south, I kept at a brisk pace, swerving in and out of congested pockets of foot traffic before hustling down the stairs to the subway station, taking the steps two at a time. Running my pass through the turnstiles, I continued down the platform, settling behind a crowd of bored commuters waiting for the Shinjuku line.

**Here's another chapter for everyone. I'd really like to apologize for the delay, but what can I say? Life sucks. Anyway, let me know if you'd like to read more about Urawa and whatever misadventures I can place him in, I already have some ideas brewing. Thanks!**

I tapped my feet nervously, though considering Sakamoto's sedentary lifestyle, there wasn't much concern that he wasn't going to be in. The sign on the platform informed me that I had two more minutes to wait with its incessant electronic crawl. I wasn't sure why I was so concerned with the time now that I had all the time in the world. The thought of all of that time and nothing to do was the cause of my anxiety; I had to be doing something productive with it.

The train couldn't take longer, and my focus was slipping into boredom when the unholy screech of the tracker raised bloody hell in my pocket, making me flinch like I had been punched in the back of the head. Passengers from all over the platform turned to stare at the asshole that chose the electronic version of nails-on-a-blackboard as his ring tone. With a certain amount of false humility, I played along, pulling out the tracker and jamming buttons in an attempt to shut the thing up. Nothing was working, so I gave a big smile and muttered, "Important call," before I dashed out of the station.

Outside, I studied the display, which informed me of a severe disturbance about 1.5 km to the north of my location, in fact, just a few blocks down from my own apartment. I took off at a sprint, though I knew I had left my gun behind in the apartment. There wasn't much concern on my part with what I would do once I had found the source, I just felt compelled to be there.

I bolted across an intersection, cutting off a taxi, the sound of his horn an aural obscenity wailing behind me as I continued. However, with the same suddenness of its alarm, the tracker fell silent, and I slowed myself to a walk. My breath came out in hot bursts, sweat starting to form on my forehead before cooling in the night's breeze. I scanned the pedestrians for any signs of the girls, but there wasn't any sign of a struggle, no screams or explosions, just ordinary people doing ordinary things.

Chalking it all up to a malfunction, I turned back towards the station. Out of my periphery, I noticed a young girl strolling in the same direction, as if she had no care in the world. She bounded up the stairs to my apartment building, her ponytail and green hair-ties swishing back and forth as she walked. Not sure of how Makoto had managed to find my apartment, I rushed after her, trailing just behind her as she walked into the lobby. She was wearing a bright green hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans, looking every bit her tomboy reputation.

"Makoto?" I panted, gripping my knees in an attempt to regain my breath.

"Detective?" Makoto turned, genuinely surprised. "Were you out jogging? You seem out of breath."

"I didn't plan on it. What's up?"

"I was in the neighborhood, so thought I'd drop by, maybe talk a little?" She seemed flustered, and I wondered if she had caught wind of Rei's intervention earlier.

"Sure, why don't we go up to my apartment, 'cause I need some water right now."

With what chivalry I could muster while still winded, I opened up the door to my apartment and welcomed her inside. Flicking on the light switch next to the door, the apartment shone, illuminating the disarray of a typical bachelor pad. Books and DVD's were littered about, the trash had piled up above the rim of the can, though I knew I could cram about two more days of trash in there before I would have to deal with it. Makoto edged cautiously into the living room, and I couldn't tell if the look on her face was one of awe or horror. "It could use a woman's touch, I admit."

"I think one woman alone couldn't deal with this," she said to herself.

Closing the door behind me, I strolled into the kitchen and opened up the fridge. Picking out a bottle of water for myself, I turned to Makoto, "Want anything? Water, tea, or beer?"

"I'll take a tea, thank you." I tossed her the bottle, which she caught ably. "Don't take this the wrong way, but it's not always a good idea to offer alcohol to a young woman who you've brought to your apartment. It makes people nervous."

I laughed a little to myself, "I don't have a lot of visitors, but at least I wasn't offering you a bottle of sake."

Makoto cleared a spot for herself on the couch and deposited herself unceremoniously into the black leather. "You're such a gentleman."

I settled into a black upholstered chair to the right of her and kicked my feet up onto the coffee table in front of me. "So, busy night tonight?" I mentioned before taking a sip of water.

"No worse than usual, I guess."

"Good to hear, though I am wondering how you managed to find my apartment."

"I spoke to one of your co-workers; told them it was about a case. They actually give out personal information pretty easily."

"I didn't know they were teaching espionage in public schools these days."

Makoto didn't respond at first, not even a chuckle or a quip. Instead, she turned to her right to face me with a look of regret, "Look, I came by to apologize. Rei told me she came by to talk to you today, and knowing her it probably wasn't a laid back conversation."

"There's no middle ground with that girl, I'll give you that."

"She means well, I just think she has the wrong impression of you. I tried to reason with her, but Rei had her mind made up already."

I shook my head, "I can handle Rei, don't worry about that. What concerns me is why she came down to see me in the first place. She didn't let on that I knew who she was…"

It was Makoto's turn to shake her head, "I didn't mention anything about that. I don't like lying to them, but I figured most of them just wouldn't understand that you're not a threat."

"But Rei does, at least in one sense."

"Ami and Luna weren't too thrilled either, though Usagi seemed pleased. Ever since she's been with Mamoru she thinks living the single life is lonely and shallow." Makoto chuckled to herself, "I'm sure she'd still be happy for me even if I showed up with a 40 year old otaku."

"She's not a very independent girl, is she?"

"Usagi has her moments, but everything is about romance with her. It's not enough for two people to be friends; she always thinks there has to be something more to it." Makoto composed herself, leaning over from the couch and placing her hand over mine, her warmth radiating from the tips of my fingers all the way up my shoulder.

A weight of nervousness settled into the pit of my stomach, and I had to move my hand away before she started to get the wrong idea. "Rei brought something up today, and it made me think about…this. I'm not giving you the wrong impression, am I?"

She laughed out loud, her head tilting back as she fought back tears, holding her stomach in an attempt to suppress her sudden outburst. "Do you think I would have come up here if that was the case? I'm young, but I'm not stupid, Urawa."

"Well, she seemed to think you might be making more out of this than I had intended. I…I guess I wasn't sure. Could you stop laughing at me for a minute, you're making me feel even more socially backwards than normal."

Makoto managed to reign in her mirth, though spurts of giggles stilled surfaced. "I told you, Rei was making a big deal out of nothing. I might have had a crush on you when we first met, but come on; you're far too old for me."

I rubbed my temples, "I don't like where this is headed."

"You're a good guy behind the whole 'cop' façade, and you'll be a great catch for another girl someday. But we're on the same page here; there's nothing going on." She squeezed my shoulder reassuringly, and I couldn't help feeling like an ass.

"Alright, lets get off this topic now, I think I've been insulted by teenage girls one too many times today." Makoto giggled again, and I was certain that I would be hearing about this again in the not too distant future. "There's something else I wanted to bring up with you: do you know anything more about that girl with the monster the other night?"

"Yeah, one of the sisters. It seems like all these goons travel in packs, but at least that makes them easier to deal with."

"Exactly," I confirmed before lighting a cigarette.

"You really need to watch how many of those things you're smoking," Makoto interrupted, with genuine concern.

"I drink, I smoke, I'm a walking cliché; I haven't had a chance to start opening fire on some perps, though."

"You say that like you're disappointed."

"Well…" I started, and then shook the thought away. "You're getting me off track here. What I was going to ask was if you knew anything more about them, like what they're after or where they appear most often?"

Makoto thought to herself for her moment, her eyes instinctively gazing upwards as she picked through her memory. "We don't know all that much about them right now, besides the fact that they showed up after we dealt with Tiger's Eye, Hawk's Eye, and Fish Eye." She noticed the look of confusion on my face and explained further, "Two boys, one girl, and all bad news. They seem to have the same kind of flair for the dramatic that these new girls have, and knowing how these things work out, they're probably working for the same group."

"So they've got some kind of boss they answer to?"

"These girls are too low on the totem pole to be acting alone. Whoever they're working for, their boss won't come out of the woodwork until absolutely necessary, so we'll deal with these kids for the time being."

I sat back in my chair and gazed up at the ceiling, my usual position when I needed to do some heavy-duty thinking. "What are they after? Drugs, power…"

"Women?" Makoto finished for me, giggling to herself again.

"I was going to ask if they were in the white slave trade, but I guess all of that is a little low rent for people with magical powers."

"They're after some_one_, not some_thing_, but I'm not one hundred percent clear on exactly who they're after. All I really know is that this person is supposed to be hiding in someone's dream, someone with a beautiful dream no less, and they're running around the city poking into people's brains to try and find them."

"And if they don't find them in a person's dreams?"

Makoto didn't say anything, instead making her point by slashing her finger across her neck in a morbid display of pantomime. "They haven't had the chance to off anyone yet, but I know if we slack off for just a minute they'll seize the opportunity."

"Do you even know if this guy is real or not, or are these freaks just getting their rocks off messing with people?"

Makoto sighed deeply, "If there's one thing I've learned since joining this group is that no matter how crazy the plan sounds, it's always real." She closed her eyes for a moment, and I could see the exhaustion written on her face, but mental and physical. Her eyes opened slowly, with a hint of curiosity, "Now that I think about it, Usagi has been saying that Chibi-usa might know something about this guy. There's not a lot to go on, but Chibi-usa has been having some odd dreams which have really been messing with her."

"Chibi-usa? I don't remember meeting her at any point."

Makoto looked at me, and then looked down at the ground for a moment before looking me in the eyes again. "I'm not going to go into that right now. Let's just say that there are things that even I find confusing, and I'm not going to stay up all night trying to explain it to you."

"I'll take you at your word," I replied, before helping Makoto out of her seat. She grabbed her now empty bottle of tea and headed to the trash can, but stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed the pile of refuse that threatened to spill over the sides. "Just leave it on the counter, I'll take care of it later," I instructed.

After placing the bottle between a stack of dirty dishes and a mound of junk mail, Makoto met me at the doorway, which I had already opened. Without saying a word, she reached and wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me down into a hug. I returned the gesture, not before giving into my sense of self-preservation and closing the door halfway with my foot. "I don't know what you're planning on doing, but don't be stupid," she whispered into my ear.

"I can't help it, stupid is in my nature," I whispered back, giving her a squeeze.

"That's what worries me." With that said, she laid a soft kiss on my cheek and walked out the door with the confidence of a young woman who knew just a little bit more than everyone else. The area where she kissed me still radiated with warmth, and I probed my mind to find the last time I had been that close with another human being. I didn't have an answer, but I did get the feeling that Makoto wasn't truly honest when she said that we were on the same page.

I knocked on the door to Apartment 44E and waited for the cacophonous footsteps of Sakamoto as he managed the trek from his study to the front door. After Makoto left, I caught the North Shinjuku line that I had fled earlier, managing the trip without a single cause for commotion. During the ride I had time to think about the "Mystery Man" and his connection to the equally mysterious Chibi-usa.

With the knowledge that there were three previous hoodlums in colorful outfits rampaging through the city, and whoever knows how many more waiting in the wings, it was only logical that these villains had set up shop somewhere in the city. Sakamoto might have additional information, though in our last discussion his lips were sealed when it came to any direct knowledge he had about the Senshi.

The apartment door swung open fiercely, a clearly agitated Sakamoto stood backlit in the doorway, sweat upon his brow, still wearing the same tattered Senshi pajamas that he had on the last time I paid him a visit. "You returning my stuff?" he spit out, eschewing any small talk.

"You mean this?" I followed, pulling out the locator and dangling it in the air in front of him.

Without another word he snatched the device out of my hand before turning his back to me, attempting to shut the door behind him without so much as a "Thank You," or, "What the hell are you doing here this late?" I managed to slip my foot between the door and the frame, preventing Sakamoto from shutting the door completely, though he did manage to smash several of the toes on my left foot.

"Watch it, you bastard!" I yelped. Sakamoto seemed none too concerned with my current physical well being, but despite the obvious fact that he wasn't interested in entertaining tonight, I still let myself into his home. He didn't object further, but chose to shuffle back to his study. I took my shoes off at the door and rubbed my throbbing left foot; the pain had subsided from 'a screaming mother' to just 'a nuisance'. "What crawled up your ass tonight?"

"Sorry, Detective, but you've caught me at a bad time."

"Bad enough to assault your superior officer?"

"Enough to injure a pesky trespasser, so watch what you say." He plopped himself down at his desk, the glare from his computer reflecting off of his glasses. He began typing furiously on his keyboard, his fingers flying as a glint of hubris flashed across his eyes.

I settled onto a stool to his right, catching a glance at his monitor. "Chatting with someone?" I questioned.

"Chatting makes it sound too genial; I'm arguing with someone." Sakamoto squinted at the monitor, his whole body trembling in disbelief, before firing off another salvo on his keyboard. "This philistine is under the deluded impression that Mars is superior to Mercury, and I'm going to set his ass straight."

"Important stuff," I muttered, "And people are always saying otaku don't have a life."

He turned his head to level me with a stare, "It's still a life, whether you get it or not."

I shrugged, "Hey, I call them like I see them." Sakamoto's fingers where tapping away like a machine gun again, and I was considering ripping his keyboard right out of the computer to get him to stop for five minutes. "Listen, as absorbing as watching you carry on a digital bitch-fest is, I've got a couple questions for you. So if you wouldn't mind…"

He sighed and lowered his head, but swiveled away from the monitor to face me. "Spit it out so I can get back to this."

"What do you know about the Senshi's enemies, like: who they are, where they come from, what they're after?"

"There's only so much information that believers such as myself have been able to cobble together over the years. First is that these youma, or whatever you'd like to call them, are not from this planet, as they express physical and psychic properties that no other creature on this Earth exhibit. As well, there seems to be a connection between these interlopers and the Senshi as well, though we're not sure exactly what it is."

"Well, then if I follow your logic, then it seems to reason that the Senshi must be interplanetary beings as well."

Sakamoto touched his finger to his nose playfully, "Exactly. There are rumblings in the community that the girl's have a link to these mythological civilizations that were rumored to exist on many of the celestial bodies in our solar system thousands of years before most recorded history."

"How the hell did they get down here, then, in this time and place?"

"Maybe the spirit of those ancestors found their way to these girls, or it could be reincarnation. This is a lot of speculation, of course."

I was squeezing the sides of my head at this point, trying to keep my skull from bursting at its seams and spilling my brains all over the carpet. "Just when you think you've got a handle on all of this stuff, something else comes along and hits you like a truck."

"Let's stick to the more substantial stuff then. These enemies have an almost militant structure to them, with a commander, generals, and foot soldiers. What they're after depends on whoever is in command of the group at the time, so it's hard to say what these recent attacks are all about." Sakamoto swiveled back to his monitor and pulled up a webpage before continuing, "However, recent sightings seem to suggest that this new crew is after something, and they're poking around in people's dreams trying to find it…"

I cut Sakamoto off with, "They're after some_one_, not some_thing_," mimicking the tone Makoto used earlier.

"Ah, the newcomer has something to add!" Whatever had him by the short and curlies earlier was forgotten at this point, replaced with a fevered desire to dissect and analyze the information I had just provided him. "Well whoever it is, they're apparently residing in 'beautiful' dreams, which means that this character is something completely different than what I've seen before. Do you know anything about this guy?"

"He seems to have contact with one of the Senshi, but I'm not sure who. Other than that, there isn't much to go on."

"'There isn't much to go on' is the operative term when dealing with the Senshi." As if to accentuate his point, he motioned to his map of the Tokyo metropolitan area, which was clogged with flags and notes from years of Senshi sightings. There was no discernable pattern that I could make out of the mess, but looking at the map created a gnawing feeling in the back of my skull.

"Do you have that map in digital?"

"Yeah, it's up on my website as we speak," he responded, pulling up his webpage; a map mirroring the one he had on his wall greeted us at the homepage.

"Can you filter it by date?"

"Of course. What time period are you looking for?"

I thought back to my run-in with Makoto earlier, before replying, "Let's just see the last three months."

He entered my request into the application; the request deleted every flag except a dozen, creating a ring on the south of the map. "It's all around Azabu-Juban," Sakamoto muttered.

"Do you have any addresses or names to go along with those flags, or are all these just approximations?"

"There are a couple of addresses here, so I can print them out if you like."

"Definitely. By the way, in the last two or three months, have you noticed anything unusual going on?"

"Besides your sudden interest in the Senshi?" He could tell by my look of displeasure that I wasn't in the mood for jokes anymore, so he followed up with, "Well, there was the solar eclipse just a few months ago, which seems to coincide with this new group's arrival on the scene."

Sakamoto handed me the print out, though his comments on the eclipse wasn't anything resembling a solid lead, but it was an interesting coincidence. I decided to follow up on it later, so I headed towards the door, thanking Sakamoto for his time.

"No problem, just let me know when you're going to be paying house calls in the future, alright?"

"I'll see what I can do about that, but I'm not making any promises."

As I slipped on my shoes and headed out the door, he said something that stopped me in my tracks, "Know what, I think that weird circus came into town at the same time as the eclipse; seems strange that I would have forgotten all about it." He noticed that I was locked in place, "Anything wrong?"

"I had forgotten all about it myself."


	7. Chapter 7

**So here it is, the final chapter. Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who hung in there, even though I took my damn sweet time finishing this thing. As usual, leave me a review or a message if you have anything to say. I have also added a poll to my profile asking everyone to help me decide if I should continue writing about Urawa, or if I should move along to something else, so please vote if you like.  
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The wind cascaded down from the greatest heights of the monumental skyscrapers that huddled around the park, as if it was the last oasis of green, real life left in the world, and crashed through the trees, stirring their branches and rousing black birds from their afternoon perch. Shimmering green waves dazzled in front of me, bending their branches and leaves in a beckon, goading me into what, I wasn't quite sure. The gentle slop of the hill and the blitzkrieg of the biting wind rushed towards the tent, somehow ominous and dark amidst all the light.

I surveyed the structure from a bench near the pond, which lay about 40 meters from its gap-toothed grin. What I was going to do there, well- hell, I rarely think anything through these days- but I was drawn here nonetheless. The circus had come to town without any fanfare, advertising, or publicity. How they even managed to get a permit to set up in the park, or if they bothered to get one at all, was anyone's guess. It seemed that everyone just wanted to look the other way, even the prefecture government, like a coven had moved in next door and we all hoped that if we just ignored the eyesore, it would eventually go away.

I had spent most of the day behind my desk, numbly typing away in the PD database, sifting through the names and dates for all of the 'mysterious' attacks that had occurred in the Azuba Juban area within the last few months. There was little there that I wasn't already aware of, but one fact was undeniable: the circus was the hub of it all. These random encounters all occurred in the same prefecture, all in or around the school and homes of most of the senshi, and most involved people the girls were familiar with. And all starting within days of this freak show's appearance during an unexplained solar eclipse, which all adds up to an amazing coincidence if I was still inclined to dismiss the Senshi as manga nonsense.

The cold steel hand of my revolver gripped my ribs through it's holster, almost prodding me to make sure that I was aware that it was still there. If I had more confidence with firearms I might have brought a shotgun, though the idea of a lone man sitting on a park bench with a loaded weapon would have ruined the element of surprise, since the SWAT team probably would have rushed out and bludgeoned my ass into next week. Come to think of it, that might be a much better idea than what I was thinking of doing right now.

"Makoto deserves better than this," was what I had to murmur to myself as I eased off the bench and made my way to the gravel trail leading towards the tent. Hours spent over the phone with events and city parks departments, trying to get anyone in that God damned bureaucracy to even acknowledge that a mystery building had popped up in the city had been more than futile. The woman on the last call hung up on me before I could even request that she send a building inspector down to the scene to take a look around. I hadn't bothered trying to scrounge some back-up from around the water cooler; unpaid overtime for an unassigned, and possibly illegal, crackdown was not going to go over well around the office.

My gun gripped me tighter as I stepped from the sun into the shadow of the tent, its jubilant façade sneering at me, cackling because I knew it's secret. A second of hesitation struck me dumb before I threw back the canvas flap over the entrance, but my legs forced me forward, through the fabric and into the complete darkness that lay inside. There was a hiss, somewhere, coming from something that I couldn't describe. The inside of the tent was like ink, its absoluteness swam in front of me, conjuring green circlets of light to spring up with every turn of my head.

I fished out my flashlight from my jacket pocket, and the bulb flickered lazily before flooding the ground in front of me in incandescent light. I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking for; I had come here because of an irresistible urge. I headed around the perimeter of the tent with my light bouncing off of metal grandstands. Even a literally fly-by-night operation like this must have an office or backstage of some kind, and there might be…something? I didn't expect a step-by-step diagram for taking over the world, but maybe there would be something incriminating enough that I could put the Senshi on the right track, maybe help them finish this nonsense without anyone else getting hurt. "Makoto deserves better than this."

"I don't think she does, as long as we're both talking about one of those Senshi snobs, and not just some other Makoto. Come to think of it, humans in general are too stupid to deserve anything better." The voice dripped with candy and venom, and I didn't need to shine a light to know that the red-haired one was there to interrupt my snooping. With a fluidity I didn't know I possessed, my right hand slid the revolver from it's holster like a lubricated piston, slamming into position, it's long muzzle trained with a singular focus on the girl before my thumb threw back the hammer.

"Oh, did I offend you?" she continued with a sneer, pantomiming, raising her hands above her head. "She really is such a pretty girl, but way too young for you, you old pervert. But did you know how ugly her dreams are? Would you even want her if you knew what was scurrying around in there?"

"Like I would put any stock into your bullshit, you ginger psychopath. Put your hands above your head, unless you want me to just blow it off your skinny shoulders. Or would you get a kick out of that?"

"I'm…not…ginger, you son of a bitch!" The tendons in her neck were popping out, her eyes furrowed in look of such disgust that it damned near warmed my heart.

"I said: put your hands over your head, now! I'm not here to play your mind games; I'm here to shut you down before you and whoever the hell it is you work for get any further."

She complied, but with an itch of a smile that told me that things weren't over here, not by a long shot. She took a step forward, then a second, the hint of a smile growing into a full-toothed grin. "Is this how you imagined this whole story would end, with you the hero and a pretty young high school girl who just has to find some…way to repay you? Do you want to know what she's be dreaming of, cause I can tell you if you really want to know? Its nothing too dirty, but it's so full of domestic bliss that it makes me want to puke." She nearly spit out the last sentence, her grin twisted just the slightest bit into a sneer, or possibly a grimace.

"I told you, I don't want to hear any more from you," I started, taking one step towards her, the barrel trained at the center of her forehead. "If you knew anything about my dreams, you'd know that I don't want anything like that from her, or is it too difficult for you to imagine a human desire besides just the urge to screw and kill?" I took another step forward and the steel of the barrel pressed against the taught white skin of her forehead, "But, don't get me wrong, I would kill you right now if that meant that her life would be just one iota better."

"Makoto wants to make your life better too; she'd make you forget all about that bitch of an ex-wife or yours, forget it all so that the only thing that you can think of when you wake up in the morning, and the only thing you can think of before you go to sleep is you…," she growled with a wicked look, "…and her." Her fingers wrapped around the barrel of the gun, easing it down till I was only aiming at the dirt, my arm too weak to respond. "She'll wait for you, forever if she needs to, because that's the kind of girl she is."

"How did you know about-oh, God, Rei was right, Rei was," I stammered.

"Makoto doesn't care what Rei thinks; it's all trivial, because she knows what the truth is in her heart. She won't run away from it, no matter what you say, but are you sure you really want to push her away?" She oozed her way behind me with the natural grace of an oil slick, wrapping her arms around my shoulders, and on tiptoes breathed into my ear, "Who, in their wildest dreams, wouldn't want a beautiful, young, blushing bride waiting for them when they come home. A girl who'd give it all up for you, even the world…"

"She'd never quit the Senshi; she'd never quit on her dream…"

Her lips moved to within centimeters of my ear, the odd cold of her breath brushing against the hair on my neck, chilling me. "And what if you became her dream instead, would she? I've seen her darkest dreams at night. Why, I think…" Her voice dropped to the slightest hint of a whisper, my stunned senses barely able to register what she was telling me. What I could make out brought the blood rushing to my face, distorting my features into a wolf-like vision of absolute hatred, my fingers tightening around the grip of my revolver with a renewed desire.

I whipped around, my finger crying out to, for the love of God, SHOOT HER! My brain overrode my initial impulse, but just barely, enough for me to utter, "You might have seen her dreams, violated her mind like the animal that you are, but you don't know a damn thing about the human mind, and you don't know shit about Makoto either. She'll never be what you think she'll be; she'd never be that weak. That girl is made out of granite and iron, and even a little esper bitch like you could never break her down."

The opportunity was there- to take my shot and damn all the rest- but I could hear Makoto's voice calling in the recesses of my mind, telling me not to try, not to give in to her. Instead, I cocked my arm back, and with one burst forward, aimed to bring the butt of the revolver down onto her temple. My swing was true, but all I felt was the negligible resistance of air; she had leaped backwards, almost seeming to hover for a split second, her smile breaking even wider now. "I always love it when it ends up like this; that's the one thing humans have in common with us. Hey, kitty, I've got something for you to play with."

A high pitched shriek that could raise the dead burst out of the rafters and rang through my head, crashing against my skull and ricocheting like a bullet. The figure was hard to make out at first, cloaked in darkness with only the yellow glint of her eyes scorching through the dimness. With an explosion from its legs, the creature burst from the shadows, hurtling towards the ground. It's cat-like ears protruded from her green hair like devil's horns, her body, almost seven feet of it, coated in a matted ocean green fur. Switchblade nails glinted on her hands, and there was a smell, a smell of human blood, that crept out from the beast. Among it's fur were noticeable clumps of dark, sticky matter, and the clumps were most prominent around the creatures stunted muzzle. It landed without a sound, eyes trained on my throat, and with what can only be described as animal lust, she bared her crimson tainted fangs.

There was no warning, no time to react, as the cat pounced forward, it's tail flicking wildly, the stench of human flesh upon it's breath piercing my nostrils. Instinct told me to fall to my side, my right arm swinging towards the animal and bringing the revolver up to greet it. A single shot rang out, nearly blinding me with the flash from the muzzle. The shot was off, but just a little; it tore through the beast's left shoulder, sending near pitch black blood spraying out from the wound and carrying fur and meat along with it. The cat howled, but it still kept it's trajectory without hesitation. The creature whipped it's right arm around, an index claw coming close enough to catch my jaw, just right of my chin. A stinging sensation beat up my face as I felt the metallic appendage carve it's way through my cheek and up to the temple, narrowly missing my eyes.

Blood was starting to ooze out of the cut- I didn't need to touch it to know it was deep- but I didn't have time to worry about my mug, not with the cat finishing it's arcing jump and spinning on it's heels, ready for another attack. From my back, I gripped the gun with both hands now, my finger squeezing off two rounds. 'Quick as a cat,' would be an accurate, though kind of obvious, assessment of the animal's speed, but it was only able to dodge one bullet, the other crashing into it's throat, just north of the clavicle. Another healthy spray of crude blood burst from the creatures wound, this time enough to cause the beast to stagger back a few steps. It wrapped a hand around the gaping hole in it's neck, hacking up a serious amount of blood and spitting it onto the floor.

The shot was good, but this damn animal was not done yet. I got to my feet and tried to scramble towards the grandstands, hopefully to find some cover and keep out of the way of the beasts claws until the cavalry arrived. At least I hope they would arrive; I fired off three damn rounds in a busy city park, somebody better get off their asses and come down here. I didn't want to turn my back on this monster, but I hoped the neck wound would be enough to keep its attention until I reached the bleachers.

Once again, I thought wrong. Two bright flashes of pain rushed through my left leg and arm; the back of my knee felt wobbly all of a sudden, and I managed one more crooked step forward before it gave out entirely. The cut was made with precision, severing the tendons in my leg. My left arm flopped to my side as the dirt floor rushed up to greet me, and I could clearly see another deep gash running along the crease of my arm opposite the elbow. A vein had obviously been hit, since blood of deep, oxygenated crimson spurted out and onto the ground, the dirt drinking it up like rain. I managed to roll over onto my back again to witness the creature loping it's way back towards me, licking oversized fangs with all the relish of a wild beast who finally caught it's meal.

As my eyes started to go black, I managed to lift the revolver one more time, firing off a desperation round that caused the animal to squeal in agony. I could see the blow glance off the animal's high cheek bone, and there was the satisfactory sound of bone crunching against flesh. It wasn't enough, I already knew that, but it sure as hell felt good. I could barely see when I felt sharp fangs rip through my right shoulder, tearing the meat away from the bone.

Then there was noise, coming from somewhere…I don't know. Voices, maybe. A scream, a cry, a blood curdling yell. Senshi, possibly. I tried to open my eyes, but I could only manage to crack them, and blood poured in and stung. Nothing but bodiless orbs of light, drifting back and forth; another scream. Maybe there was more, but I just couldn't identify. More black, and it's coming on fast. I always hoped it would be quick.

* * *

The constant beep of machinery woke me up, more or less. I wouldn't say I was fully aware of everything that was going on since my head was full of fog, undoubtedly from the painkillers they had been pumping into me. I knew I was in a hospital; the bed had that sterile and foreign feel to it that everything in a hospital seems to have. As my pupil's dilated, I could start to make out the figures that were surrounding my bed: Ami, Rei, Minako, Usagi, and crouched nearest to me was Makoto.

I could hear a profound exhale from around the room as my eyes opened fully, giving me just enough time to catch Usagi leap towards me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. "Oh, I thought we were going to lose you! I'm so, so, so, so glad you didn't die, Sir! I don't know what we would have done with Makoto if anything had happened to you!" I could feel a single warm tear run down her cheek and onto mine as she squeezed me tighter. There was no intention of ruining Usagi's heartfelt embrace, but I couldn't help screaming out in pain as she pressed down on my bandaged shoulder.

Ami stepped in and loosened Usagi's grip, murmuring, "This isn't the best time for that Usagi; you can give him a hug when he gets out of the hospital. For now, he does need to rest; he's been through… a lot, I would imagine." Rei and Ami's eyes met for a second, as if in understanding. Both then focused on Makoto, who had managed to stay silent up until this point, but a muffled sniffle could be heard as she tried to hide her eyes behind the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

"You okay, kid?" I managed weakly.

"I ought to be asking you that…and don't call me kid," she retorted with another sniffle. "You nearly killed me yourself, getting into trouble like that, I almost had a heart attack."

"You're too young for that," I started before having to pause with a coughing fit. I covered my mouth with a nearby tissue as small amounts of blood speckled the white cloth, leaving me to remark when I had regained my composure, "Well that a fan-fucking-tastic sign."

"Language, Mr. Urawa! This is a hospital, not a whore house." A doctor in stark white scrubs entered the room, my chart in hand, "And considering that you're even lucky to be alive, a little blood in your lungs is the least of your worries."

"I think that anyone would be worried by that, no matter what their condition was!" I tossed the tissue onto the nightstand next to my bed and eased back down.

"Well, you did lose a lot of blood, and you did swallow quite a bit by the time the EMT's had gotten to you. In fact, we had to pump your stomach to get most of it out. You'll probably notice some coughed up blood over the next couple of days, but that will disappear. What I'm most concerned with is the function of your leg; we'll have to get you into physical therapy as soon as possible." The doctor paused to note the look of concern on the faces of the girls; I was, frankly, unconcerned. I was lucky to still even have my leg, so if I had to walk with a limp the rest of my life, that was a hell of a lot better than having to hobble around on a cane, or in a chair.

"Do you think he'll make a full recovery?" Makoto queried, with a look of distress and almost matronly exasperation.

"If he gets enough rest, eats well, and is welling to put in the effort, he should be fine. And speaking of which, I think you girls should let the Detective rest for now, you can come back tomorrow, though, if you like."

The Senshi started to file out of the room, but I spoke up, "If you don't mind, Doc, I just need to speak to Makoto for a minute."

"I think Makoto can see you tomorrow, with the rest of us," Rei interjected. There was no shortage of displeasure plastered across her face, and I could feel that static tension between us once again. She wasn't going to get over her distrust of me anytime soon, but there was a measure of respect in her look now, probably because I was willing to get torn to shit, and there was only one reason why.

However, before she could protest further, Usagi grabbed her by the arm and proceeded to forcibly remove Rei, exclaiming with boundless energy, "C'mon Rei, there's nothing wrong with them having a little talk! Let's leave the two lovebirds alone and go outside."

Minako chipped in, pushing guiding Rei out the door by the shoulders, "You just have to learn when to let go, Rei, kids these days need their privacy."

Ami slid out last, giving Makoto a backwards glance, "We'll be waiting for you outside." She noticed the odd twinkle in Makoto's eye that I was beginning to notice as well, and there was a hint of trepidation when she said, "Don't take too long, okay?" As she closed the door behind her, Minako could still be heard chiding Rei about her attitude, and how this was exactly the type of thing that would keep her from getting a boyfriend of her own. The door clacked shut before I could hear Rei's fiery rebuttal, but judging from the sudden yell, this argument was going to be far from over.

Makoto shuffled her way back over to me, casting her gaze over my injuries, muttering, "You're a damn fool, you know that?"

"I've been called worse, but I deserve it. I guess I'm not one to think things through," managing a weak chuckle.

"You could have called me, let me know what was going on. I could have helped you…"

I cut her off, "I'm the cop here; I'm the one who should be in charge. I was only doing what I thought was right, and what I thought was best for you. I never mean to get into it with those…things, but I guess that the reason my grandfather always said I had a death wish. I never could back down from something, even if I ended up looking like a 'damn fool' because of it."

Makoto edged closer, her finger lightly caressing my tightly gauzed shoulder. Without even a hint of sympathy, she jabbed the bandages, and seemed to relish my grimace. "I don't really care if you think you're the one in charge here; the boogeymen are left to me and my friends, because- well, because you just can't deal with it. I mean, look at you, you're going to be laid up in a hospital bed for a week!" She reached her hand up to the bandage running up my face, which covered the 30 stitches needed to put my face back together, but I didn't flinch. To admit I was wrong- I don't know if I could do that, but I sure as hell deserve whatever grief she wanted to send my way. "I don't want to worry about you getting hurt like this again, that's what I really meant to say."

I grabbed her hand lightly, "I know, I know…but I can't let you go this alone, so I'll just have to find something I can do for you." Makoto's eyes were starting to mist; there was nothing more wrenching than seeing her eyes clouded like that.

She leaned started to lean in towards me, and I could feel the beat of my heart crawling it's way up my throat as she whispered, "Why do I always fall for stupid older guys?" Her lips, puckered and peach-hued, soft as rose petals inched towards mine, and there was an odd sense of fear that filled me. With an instinctive jerk backwards, I moved out of her range, instead grabbing her gently by the face and planting a fatherly kiss on her forehead. "You won't get over it will you? Even though it's not illegal…" she asked, but not with the bitterness of rejection that I was worried about.

"Technically, but there are some things, well, they're just not right. I know Usagi and her guy, and the age difference there, but that's between the two of them- considering what the two of them look forward to, maybe it's not a big deal. But, I just can't."

"I guess I'll have to accept that, won't I" she quipped like the young, and very dangerous, temptress she was trying to be at that moment. "But don't expect me just to just go away…"

"I don't want you to go away, I'm- I'm just saying that what you want just can't happen right now."

"Well, what about later?"

"I can't tell you the future, kid," I replied, giving her a tight hug before she turned to head out the door. Watching her as she went, I remembered again what that girl had to say, and the pit returned to my stomach. I stopped her with, "Makoto, hold on just a second. If you don't mind me asking, what are your dreams for the future? I know that's kind of a weird question to ask out of the blue and all, but it's something I want to know."

"Does this something have anything to do with what happened earlier?"

"In a way, yes. Does that change anything?"

She smirked before replying, "I guess I've always wanted to be a pastry chef, if that answers the question. I'm never sure how keeping up with my other obligations would affect it, so I do worry sometimes that I'll never get to do it, but that would be my great dream. Oh yeah, and keep psychotic monsters from ripping the world in two, how could I forget about that?"

I didn't laugh at the last statement, my voicing staying on an even, and serious, keel. "And would you give up those dreams willingly? If there was a guy that came into your life, would you be willing to give all that up?"

Makoto stammered a little bit, "I-I'm not really sure. Maybe, I guess-I really haven't thought about it."

"Don't; don't ever do it, not for anybody. Nobody who loves you should ever force you to take away what you want most in life, and you should never consider it yourself, not for a minute. A real man would respect you desires, and share in them too, you got me?"

"I guess I do. Would you mind telling me why this came up so suddenly?"

I lay my head back onto the pillow and closed my eyes, "Maybe some other time; it was just on my mind right now, and I felt like I really needed an answer. Go, hang out with your friends, I don't want to feel like I'm trapping you in here."

Makoto grabbed my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, the silkiness of her hand caused the hair on my arm to stand on end, like some kind of electric shock. "I wanted to be here with you, to know that you're all right. And I'll keep coming back until you're out of that bed and raising hell…and you won't hear the last of me until I get my damn kiss." She winked at me with a hearty laugh before heading out the door and shutting the outside world behind her, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

* * *

It had been a week and a half before the doctors cleared me to go back to my own home with a laundry list of precautions and a garbage bag full of pills. After a week cooped up in that place, the only medicine I needed comes in a fine glass. I lit up my first cigarette in what felt like ages, and crossed the threshold of the hospital into the living world with the knowledge that Death must have screwed up bad when he let me go. I headed towards the curb to hail a cab, maybe to go home, or even the department for a change of pace.

"Detective Urawa?" The word was spoken with the measured cool of an older woman, and what a woman she was. Tall, slender, with flowing green hair that reached down to her back, which was decked out in an impressive looking coat and skirt combination, this lady was definitely a knockout. "Would you mind if I have a word with you?"

"I suppose. Look, I just got out of the hospital, and as you can see," I motioned to the myriad of bandages and slings that enveloped me, "I'm not exactly in top shape, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm not much help right now."

"You'll be fine; this will only take a minute."

"Well, since you seem to know what's best for me, go right ahead," I cracked with a none-too-subtle hint of annoyance.

"I understand your frustration, Detective, but you'll be feeling better in just a few days. What I really want to talk to you about is Makoto and the Senshi."

"Are you a reporter?" I looked deeper into her fathomless eyes, "Or even worse, a psychologist?"

"I know Usagi and the other girls personally; you could even say that I'm something of a liaison for the team, if that is the right word. I'm a protector as well, but just not in the same sense since I'm not guarding anything physical."

I took a long drag on my cigarette, scanning the crowd to make sure no one else was listening, and then I motioned for her to follow me to a bench away from the street. I sat down, which was a welcome relief for my already aching leg, and I was sure I would need to kick up my feet before too long to avoid any swelling. "Well, whatever the hell that means. So, you here about what's going on with Makoto, because I already told Rei that there's nothing to it."

"I'm more interested in you, Detective, than anything going on in Makoto's personal life."

"Well, if that's not the case, then what do you want? And if you don't mind my asking, how come I haven't seen you around the girls before? They're a tight knit bunch; I figured I would have heard about before."

"Let's just say that I'm not in town often. As I mentioned before, I watch out for the girls, pass on important information, or sometimes protect their future, in both a literal and figurative sense."

"Okay, then what can I call you?"

"If you have to call me anything, call me Setsuna. That's not important right now, because what I really came here to talk to you about was your incident a week ago. There's more to your recovery than modern medical science will lead you to believe, something far beyond their sphere of understanding."

"If you've got something to say, then spit it out."

"Very well, I'll put it bluntly. You should be dead. Makoto should be scattering your ashes somewhere instead of pining over you. The fact that you would survive is unexpected, and I don't like the unexpected, Detective."

My eyes narrowed as I tried to decipher exactly what she was getting at, "How am I supposed to be dead when I'm obviously very much alive?"

"You can thank Usagi for that. She used the infinite powers inside her in ways she wasn't even aware of. Usagi understood your importance to Makoto and, literally, brought you back from the dead. The power was always hers to use, but she was never aware of it, and she shouldn't have become aware until many years from now. You can understand why this is troubling."

"Wait, wait- if I'm following you, and I'm not quite sure I am, you can read the future?"

"I witness the future, Detective. I've stood before the very gates of time away from the machinations of man, outside of it all. I see the future, and the path that's necessary to get there."

"And my revival has changed that course?"

"It's too early to tell, which is why I'm speaking to you know. You mustn't let any of the girls know the reason for your continued and existence, and most importantly, you can not interfere with their battles as the Senshi."

My tone changed from curious to bitter hostility in an instant, "You want me to just walk away, with all that I know, and just forget that they're out there? I don't think you understand what you're asking."

"The girls do not need your help, or your distraction, on the battlefield. When transformed, the Senshi gain a heightened sense of awareness, and a sensitivity to sources of magical energy. A magical energy that you now emit…"

"And if they sense that, they'll go sticking their noses where they don't belong, and they'll eventually figure out that it was Usagi that saved me."

Her voice remained even and unemotional as she bore on, "Precisely. When Usagi uses her powers on a normal man, it leaves an imprint of her aura on that person, marking them for all time, and it is something they would eventually discover. A young girl can't be expected to understand the responsibility that comes with a power over death. Most people, regardless of age, couldn't handle that kind of pressure. But death, as I know you're aware, is essential, and if Usagi fails to allow death to continue as normal, the path to our desired outcome will be destroyed."

"Well, how is it that this occurred? I mean, shouldn't this throw the whole path of time to shit?"

"People don't understand that time is not a linear path; it is more like a billion rivers. Some never intersect, some may cross and lead to the same final destination, and some may lead nowhere and die. A simple fluctuation in the current of time is not uncommon, and our final kingdom can still be reached."

"Hold on just a moment, wouldn't coming down here and telling me this change things as well?"

"Not unless I was supposed to speak with you, and reveal the information that needed to be revealed. I can't alter time if I am simply following the natural course of it. When we speak again, we can have a more philosophical discussion if you like, but for now, just understand that you can't allow them to find out about this."

I scratched my head, sighing, "Maybe I should go away, just leave town and not let them know about it. What do you think?"

"That I can't answer; what happens between you and Makoto is your own affair, and I can't interrupt what may or may not happen. I understand that Usagi or Minako might be better suited for this kind of conversation, but some words of wisdom do come to mind: 'Life without endeavor is like entering a jewel-mine and walking out with empty hands'. Make of that what you will, Detective."

And with that she picked herself up from the bench and walked down the cracked concrete to, well, wherever the hell she was going to go. I was left to sit, and to ponder, a life that now seemed so much smaller than it had before. I didn't even notice when the sky had passed from blue, to red, to orange, and then to purple, and if it wasn't for the biting wind, I might have sat there even longer. There weren't any easy answers, but the mind has a way of making a simple problem into a difficult one, while the heart takes the difficult questions and makes them simple.


End file.
